The Latest COVID-19 Vaccine News for the Week of February 19

Thanks to those who were able to join us for our webinars this week addressing the latest COVID-19 news and legal issues including today’s webinar that addressed a couple of vaccine related topics. Miller Johnson has been tracking the latest vaccine updates and will continue to keep clients informed of the latest news and developments.

Latest Vaccine News

Last week the Biden Administration announced the purchase of an additional 200 million doses of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine (100 million doses of each). The additional vaccines will give the country enough vaccines by the end of July to cover every adult in the country. While Johnson & Johnson continues to await approval of its EUA application, it has previously indicated it has already begun to produce doses and hopes to have 100 million doses available by June.

There continues to be concerns regarding new variants from countries such as the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil. Small, early studies have shown that the mRNA vaccines– like the ones produced by Pfizer and Moderna– are not as effective against the new variants. However, early data demonstrate that the vaccines remain effective at preventing severe COVID-19 and avoiding hospitalizations and death.

Latest Distribution and Administration Numbers

Vaccine distribution began in the US on December 14, 2020, and according to the CDC, more than As of today, 59.1 million doses have been administered which is an increase of almost 27 million from our last update two weeks ago.  In the last week, an average of 1.58 million doses per day were administered. On several days more than 2 million adults were vaccinated.

Here in Michigan, just over 2.3 million doses have been distributed which is only an increase of 500,000 from two weeks ago. Vaccine distribution as shifted slightly towards providing vaccines to local health departments who have now received over 790,000 vaccines compared to just over 1,000,000 given to hospitals. Michigan has administered more than 1.7 million doses of the vaccine which is an increase of just more than 600,000 from two weeks ago meaning the pace of distribution has remained relatively constant in the last month.  Michigan currently ranks in the bottom of half states with respect to the ratio of vaccines distributed to vaccines administered.