Azar celebrates vaccination of NY health worker: 'It's the American people's vaccine'
50 million people to be vaccinated by the end of January, health secretary says
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar celebrated the first vaccination of a New York health care worker with the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine candidate on Monday, saying it's "the American people's vaccine."
"We'll have about 20 million doses available to use for vaccination by the end of December. We'll get a total of 50 million people vaccinated by the end of January," Azar told "Varney & Co."
"It’s the American people’s vaccine thanks to the leadership of President Donald Trump, and what matters this week is getting our frontline health care workers protected and getting our most vulnerable senior citizens protected," he continued.
Sandra Lindsay, left, a nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center, is inoculated with the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine by Dr. Michelle Chester, Monday, Dec. 14, 2020, in the Queens borough of New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, Pool)
It's possible the U.S. could have four coronavirus vaccines with FDA approval by February or March as Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca approach the finish line, Azar said.
"That’s the genius of Operation Warp Speed," Azar said. "We spread our bets around not just multiple companies, but multiple platforms, technologies of vaccines. Moderna, which we're incredibly excited about, if everything's on track, we could see approval this week."
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The Food and Drug Administration on Friday formally granted emergency approval for Pfizer and BioNTech’s coronavirus vaccine candidate, officially paving the way for widespread distribution of the long-awaited vaccine. The first doses were administered on Monday.
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President Trump, who had been pressuring the FDA to expedite approval, said finding a coronavirus vaccine would have taken "five years" if he weren't president.
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"If I wasn't president? According to almost everybody, even the enemy, if I wasn't president, you wouldn't have a vaccine for five years," Trump told Fox News' Brian Kilmeade in an interview that aired Sunday. "OK, I push the FDA and companies and everybody else involved like nobody's ever been pushed before."
Fox News' Madeline Farber and the Associated Press contributed to this report.