Bloomberg News
@Bloomberg-News·2.8M subscribers·40.1K videos
Number of Pfizer Shots by End of 2020 Drops from 20 Million to 6.4 Million
Posted
December 7, 2020
Views
387
Likes
6
Comments
5
Engagement
December 7, 2020
387
6
5
2.84%
Every word spoken in this episode is indexed. Type any phrase to jump straight to the moment it was said.
Type any word or phrase that may have been spoken. Click a result to seek the player to that exact moment.
Try a name, a topic, or a quoted line
You’re on December 7, 2020. Earlier episodes are to the left, later ones to the right — the row keeps loading as you go. Click any card to open it.
Dec 7, 20204:33Now PlayingLess than a year after the coronavirus crisis erupted, a massive mobilization to deliver a vaccine is underway, and Britain has emerged as a proving ground.
Having cleared the shot from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE, the U.K. is set to become the first Western country to vaccinate its citizens, a turning point in the battle to halt a pathogen that has killed more than 1.5 million people. Britons are expected to begin rolling up their sleeves Tuesday, with about 50 hospitals initially taking part in the campaign.
As the focus shifts from research and development to distribution, the country of 67 million people finds itself in the spotlight. Deployment of the Pfizer vaccine -- along with potential shots from Moderna Inc., AstraZeneca Plc and others waiting in the wings -- will need to overcome a series of production and logistics hurdles. Health systems also must convince some medical workers and members of the public that it’s safe to take the jab.
“We’ve demonstrated the power of science, ingenuity and ambition,” said Rajeev Venkayya, president of Takeda Pharmaceutical Co.’s vaccines business. “If we can do that as a global community, I believe we can certainly figure out how to get distribution done. That’s not to say we’re not going to run into problems. Of course we will. We’ve never done this before.”
Britain, like some other Western governments, has faced criticism over its approach to testing, contact tracing and other parts of its response: The pressure is on to avoid such snags with inoculations. Heading into a potentially grim winter, hospitals across the country are already under strain.
The country should brace for some “hard months,” the chief medical officers of the U.K. wrote in a Dec. 4 letter, warning that socializing around Christmas could put additional stress on hospitals into the new year. Immunizations may help reduce Covid hospital admissions and deaths significantly by spring, they wrote, “but there are many weeks before we get to that stage.”
Getting a vaccine swiftly to tens of millions of people is a huge challenge, and Pfizer’s product adds to the complexities. The shot has to be transported at about minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit), colder than winter in Antarctica. After arriving, it can be stored in freezers, in a hospital fridge for five days, or up to 15 days in special Pfizer thermal shippers filled with dry ice.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Bloomberg Quicktake brings you live global news and original shows spanning business, technology, politics and culture. Make sense of the stories changing your business and your world.
To watch complete coverage on Bloomberg Quicktake 24/7, visit or watch on Apple TV, Roku, Samsung Smart TV, Fire TV and Android TV on the Bloomberg app.
Have a story to tell? Fill out this survey for a chance to have it featured on Bloomberg Quicktake
Connect with us on…
Breaking News on YouTube
Sentinel Indexing in Progress
Metadata and chapters are available. Claim extraction for this episode is pending.
All video content is delivered via YouTube embedded players in accordance with the YouTube Terms of Service. Sentinel provides research tools that promote discovery and accountability across political media.
