Top health officials told reporters at a Tuesday briefing on the Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed initiative that a COVID-19 vaccine will be distributed to all of the nation’s 64 jurisdictions within 24 hours of approval by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said at the briefing that officials expect to be able to begin vaccinating nursing home residents, one of the top priority groups for receiving the vaccine, within two days of FDA approval. “To ensure all of this can happen on such incredibly tight timeframes, OWS and our partners have been running not only tabletop exercises, but actual field exercises for the shipment procedures,” Azar said. To ensure smooth operation of distribution channels, officials will begin making test shipments that don’t contain the actual product to states this week, he added. Azar also said two new COVID-19 treatments—Eli Lilly’s monoclonal antibody …
