Shipping of Moderna’s vaccine begins, the second is approved in the United States against COVID-19

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OLIVE BRANCH, Mississippi- Workers began packing the second US-authorized COVID-19 vaccine for shipment on Sunday, a much-needed boost to efforts to contain the coronavirus pandemic.

Workers at a facility in the Memphis area were boxing the vaccine developed by Moderna Inc. and the National Institutes of Health. The much-needed vaccines are expected to begin implementation Monday, just three days after the Food and Drug Administration approved their emergency distribution.

Sunday afternoon, a committee of experts will debate who will next receive the first doses of the Moderna vaccine and a similar vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. and the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech. The Pfizer vaccines shipped a week ago and started the next day, kicking off the largest vaccination campaign in the country.

Public health experts say vaccines – and others in development – are the only way to contain the virus that has spread out of control. Nationally, more than 219,000 people a day test positive on average for the virus, which has killed more than 314,000 people in the United States and nearly 1.7 million worldwide.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines shipped so far and the vaccines shipped in the coming weeks will be nearly complete for health professionals and nursing home residents, based on advice from the Advisory Committee on Vaccination Practices.

The panel will meet on Sunday to discuss who will receive the available doses after applying the first.

There won’t be enough vaccines for the general population until spring, so doses will be rationed for at least the following months.

Panelists tend to be “key workers” next to be vaccinated, as people such as bus drivers, shop assistants, and others are the most commonly infected. However, other experts believe that people 65 and older should be next, along with those with certain conditions, as they are the Americans who die the most.

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