Leaders of the White House COVID-19 response team said they are ready to distribute Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine when and if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issues an emergency use authorization (EUA)—which could come as early as this weekend, according to a report by Stephanie Soucheray for the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy (CIDRAP) of the University of Minnesota.
"We are doing the work so if the EUA is granted we will waste no time in getting life-saving vaccines into the arms of Americans," said Jeff Zients, the Biden administration's COVID-19 czar during today’s press conference on response efforts.
Zients said governors have received information about how to possibly distribute the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which, unlike the current approved and in-use vaccines, requires only one shot and standard refrigeration.
If approved, the three million to four million doses of the vaccine could be available in the United States by the end of next week, and 20 million total by the end of March. Johnson & Johnson is contractually obligated to provide 100 million doses of vaccine to the United States by the end of June.
