First Americans Receive Newly Approved Coronavirus Vaccine Today

Not a moment too soon the CDC has approved emergency use authorization of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine in the U.S. Distribution began early this morning in what’s become one of the largest and most ambitious vaccination initiatives in U.S. history. Some 145 hospitals and other sites nationwide will receive doses today with another 425 tomorrow and an additional 66 on Wednesday. Now it’s up to a state’s discretion to allocate their limited shares, but the CDC has recommended starting with frontline health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities. The hope is to distribute 2.9 million doses this week, with 14 million by the end of the year. News of the vaccine comes 11 months after the deadly global outbreak began. In that time, the U.S. has reported 16.9 million infections and lost almost 300,000 Americans. Hospitalizations have also been above 100,000 for 12 consecutive days, breaking records eight days in a row. These numbers are still expected to worsen as it will be months before the vaccine becomes available to most Americans.