Roll out of the vaccine begins in the US, with the FDA approving the Pfizer treatment. Great news for the world, and for travellers.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-12-14/pfizer-covid-19-vaccine-trucks-rolled-out-in-united-states/12979964

United States Pfizer vaccine shipments begin after emergency authorisation

The first trucks carrying a COVID-19 vaccine for widespread use in the United States pulled out of a Michigan manufacturing plant on Sunday, with the shots critical to stopping the nation's coronavirus outbreak destined to reach states a day later.

Key points:

• The rollout is set to be the biggest vaccination effort in US history
• The US has recorded 16 million cases and is approaching 300,000 deaths
• The vaccine is stored at extremely low temperatures — about -30 degrees Celsius
• 
  

An assembly line of workers began in the early hours, pulling doses out of a freezer, boxing the vaccine and loading the units onto pallets so they could be placed on trucks at a Pfizer plant in Michigan.

Dry ice, shipping labels and packing tape were on hand as the workers — donning masks, face shields and gloves — put together the packages inside the warehouse.

The vaccine is heading to hospitals and other sites that can store it at extremely low temperatures — about -30 degrees Celsius.

Pfizer is using containers with dry ice and GPS-enabled sensors to ensure each shipment stays colder than the weather in Antarctica.

A truck loaded with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine leaves a manufacturing plant.(AP: Morry Gash)

The US expects to have immunised 100 million people with the coronavirus vaccine by the end of the first quarter of 2021, the chief US adviser for efforts on COVID-19 vaccines said.

He said the United States hopes to immunise 40 million people this month and another 50 million to 80 million in January.

Almost 300,000 Americans killed by the virus

Shipments of the Pfizer vaccine will set in motion the biggest vaccination effort in American history at a critical juncture of the pandemic that has killed 1.6 million and infected 71 million people worldwide.

Initially, about 3 million doses were expected to be sent out, with healthcare workers and nursing home residents the top priority.

Infections, hospitalisations and deaths are soaring in the US, with numbers likely to get worse over the holidays.

The vaccine is offering hope in the fight against the pandemic that has killed nearly 300,000 Americans and infected 16 million people across the country.

Posted5hhours ago

Pfizer is using containers with dry ice to make sure the vaccine stays cold enough.(AP: Morry Gash)

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