Osterholm: ‘The Weather Is Going To Slow Down Production’ on Vaccines

EXCERPT:

SCIUTTO: "So the Biden administration is saying, by the summer, by July, I believe, President Biden said, 600 million doses, enough for 300 million Americans. In effect they are speeding up production, there is some evidence of that based upon what the companies are saying, do you find that goal realistic, particularly now that we have this interruption of the winter weather?"
OSTERHOLM: "You know, Jim, I do. Don’t confuse the fact at this point that the weather is going to slow down production. That is still happening. It’s just, when it gets into people’s arms, which will be slight delayed. My big concern right now is the fact that it’s the time in which these doses will arrive. I think July is a very realistic goal. I commend the administration for what they’re doing to get as much vaccine here as soon as possible. But if you obviously are following what’s happening with these viruses, particularly this U.K. variant, what we call B117. This very likely in the next five to fourteen weeks is going to cause a major surge of cases in this country. And our own work has shown that despite the fact that this surge is about to hit us and it’s going to be devastating very likely, is that over 30 million Americans over the age of 65 will not have access to vaccine in these next 12 to 14 weeks. That’s a real challenge."