Moderna declares on track to deliver 100M vaccine doses to U.S. by March, 200M by June

Pharmaceutical firm Moderna saidTuesday it is on track to deliver to the U.S. 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine by March and that it will hit 200 million doses by June.

The promised supply would be enough to immunize 100 million U.S. residents with the two-shot regimen, about one-third of the country's population of 328 million.

So far, about 23 million Americans, or 6% of the population, has been inoculated against the virus. But the rollout under former President Trump had already topped President Biden's plan of 1 million shots a day, hitting 1.6 million on the very day the Democrat took over the White House.

In her daily briefing on Tuesday, Press Secretary Jen Psaki would not answer questions about the U.S. stockpile of vaccines, saying Biden would address the issue later in the day.

Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, the first in the U.S., was approved Dec. 11 by the Food and Drug Administration under the agency's emergency use authorization rule.

The FDA on Dec. 18 also approved Moderna's EUA request. Both vaccines are already being distributed. Moderna said its data showed their vaccine was 95% effective in its late-stage clinical trial, roughly the same as Pfizer's. 

The Moderna vaccine was developed in conjunction with the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed. A key advantage of Moderna’s vaccine is that it does not need sub-zero storage like Pfizer’s, which needs to be stored at -94 degrees.

Under the deal with Pfizer, the federal government has the option to buy an additional 400 million doses, enough for 200 million people. 

Meanwhile, a third vaccine one, made by Johnson & Johnson, is still waiting for the emergency FDA  approval. The company has committed to delivering 100 million doses by June. Chief Financial Officer Joe Wolk said Tuesday the company is "confident" it will be able to do.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said Sunday that the United States is “real close” to approving a third COVID-19 vaccine, the first one to use double-stranded DNA and be delivered in a single injection.

Fauci, an immunologist and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who served on Trump’s White House Coronavirus Task Force and is now working with the Biden administration, said on MSNBC that the new vaccine is just weeks away from being approved.

"No more than two weeks from now the data will be analyzed in a similar fashion the way we analyzed it with the Moderna and the Pfizer candidate," he said. "That is an independent data and safety monitoring board."

Fauci also said that the new vaccine – developed after the Trump administration awarded the company nearly $500 million – presents "really good news" because once approved it will make it easier for Americans to get inoculated because it’s a single-dose shot.