Army Spc. Angel Laureano holds a vial of the COVID-19 vaccine, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Md., Dec. 14, 2020. (DoD photo by Lisa Ferdinando)
By Gary Raynaldo DIPLOMATIC TIMES
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Defense (DOD) have purchased an additional 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines from both Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. to help meet demand for COVID-19 vaccines in the United States. President Joe Biden said Thursday that the U.S. will have enough supply of the COVID-19 vaccine by the end of the summer to inoculate 300 million Americans. The orders placed today bring the vaccine purchased by the U.S. government from these two companies to a total of 600 million doses, enough to vaccinate 300 million people. Each company is delivering 300 million doses in regular increments through the end of July 2021, the DOD said.
In remarks made by President Biden to National Institutes of Health Staff in Bethesda, MD, Biden said:
“To all — to all of you, your work made possible the remarkably rapid development of COVID-19 vaccines we have today. It’s incredible. Initially, people were talking years, if not decades, before we’d have a vaccine. When I became President three weeks ago, America had no plan to vaccinate most of the country. It was a big mess. Just this afternoon, we signed the final contracts for 100 million more Moderna and 100 million more Pfizer vaccines. And we’re also able to move up the delivery dates with an additional 200 million vaccines to the end of July — faster than we expected. All told, we’re on track to surpass the goal I set on day one. When I was sworn in, I indicat- — just before I was sworn in, I indicated that my hope was to administer 100 million shots in the first 100 days of our term. I believe we’ll not only reach that, but we’ll break that. ”
According to the DOD, the companies began manufacturing doses of their vaccines at the same time that clinical trials were getting underway last year. The vaccine is available at no cost. Vaccine administration costs for private-sector administration partners are being covered by healthcare payers: private insurance, Medicare or Medicaid, and an HHS program to cover COVID-19 costs for the uninsured which is reimbursing providers at Medicare rates from the Provider Relief Fund.
The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, collaborated with the DOD Joint Program Executive Office for Chemical, Biological, Radiological and Nuclear Defense (JPEO-CBRND) and Army Contracting Command to provide approximately $2 billion for the additional doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, bringing the total purchase from Pfizer to approximately $6 billion.
BARDA, JPEO-CBRND and Army Contracting Command also collaborated to provide up to approximately $1.65 billion to Moderna, bringing the total federal investment in Moderna’s vaccine development, clinical trials, manufacturing and purchase to approximately $5.75 billion.
