February 19th – U.S. President Biden arrived in Kalamazoo, Michigan, on the 19th to inspect the factory of Pfizer Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. that produces coronavirus vaccines.
In his speech, he called on the public to actively vaccinate.
This factory in Portage, Kalamazoo County is Pfizer’s largest production base. The factory is equipped with a football field-sized “frozen farm” to store coronavirus vaccines.
At present, about 5 million doses of coronavirus vaccine are produced here every week.
Biden said in his speech at the factory that “it’s a matter of life and death,” Biden reported. “The government respects scientific guidance, and we want to save lives and make life better,” he said.
He thanked Pfizer employees for ensuring vaccine production around the clock.
Biden said that the total number of coronavirus vaccine orders in the United States has reached 600 million doses. Although the recent heavy snow weather has hindered the distribution of vaccines, we will still ensure that these vaccines are in place by the end of July this year, enough to vacculate the people across the United States.
He said that the vaccine is safe and those who are eligible should be vaccinated.” While I can’t promise, I believe that with an aggressive response, people’s lives can return to normal by the end of the year, and vaccines are an important part of that.”
Biden once again urged people to still wear masks and maintain social distancing at this stage, while warning that the cumulative number of coronavirus deaths in the United States will exceed 500,000. He said that Congress needs to pass a new round of epidemic relief bill as soon as possible to help the economy recover faster.
According to the Associated Press, the average speed of vaccination against the novel coronavirus in the United States is about 1.7 million doses a day.
According to statistics released by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), as of the 19th, more than 59.58 million doses of coronavirus vaccine had been vaccinated in the United States, and more than 41.97 million people had been vaccinated with at least one dose.
According to NPR, the supply of vaccines is still in short supply, and pharmaceutical companies such as Pfizer must speed up production to achieve the expected vaccination effect.
Pfizer CEO Albert Brah said on the same day that the time required to produce a batch of coronavirus vaccines is being reduced from the initial average of 110 days to 60 days, and the Kalamazoo factory expects to double vaccine production in the next few weeks.
On the 19th, Pfizer announced that it had submitted new data to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to prove the stability of its coronavirus vaccine stored in a minus 15 to minus 25 degrees Celsius environment, in order to request the FDA to approve the update of the emergency use authorization prescription information in the United States.
This means that the vaccine developed by Pfizer in cooperation with BioNTech may no longer need to be stored in ultra-cryogenic environments, thus reducing the difficulty of transporting and distributing vaccines.
