Operation Warp Speed is the partnership with an aim of developing and distributing vaccinations for COVID-19. Senator Dan Sullivan issued a statement to Alaskans to summarize the the state of the project, after being briefed by the partnership’s chief operating officer and chief scientific advisor. All U.S. senators were present for the briefing.
Sullivan said that funding for COVID vaccines has been a priority of his: “This was something that I was very focused on in the CARES Act, to make sure there was significant funding for the rapid development of therapeutics and a vaccine.”
He said that this information is all great to hear, but that the news requires cautious optimism: “The bottom line is there are two companies that you have been reading about, I’m sure in the press [Moderna and Pfizer] that are likely to have FDA approval very soon, with more companies coming online probably soon thereafter. They’re expecting to have upwards of 20,000,000 vaccines by next month, and to start administering these as well.” He added: “They will week-by-week continue to administer the vaccine to Americans across the country with the goal that they estimate, right now, by the beginning of the Summer or end of May, to have pretty much the entire country vaccinated, for those Americans who choose to have a vaccine. This is pretty remarkable news! Vaccines normally take eight, nine, ten years to develop and get tested.”
Alaska is well on its way to planning how the vaccine distribution will take place, with the guidance of Operation Warp Speed: “I did ask about the logistical challenges that we have with regard to delivery of the vaccine, especially in a place like our great state that has huge territorial expanse and limited population size. We want to be able to make sure everybody has access to this. The general told me that, similar to the testing, they are very focused on Alaska. They recognize our challenges. They recognize the long-distances. They recognize the lack of medical capacity in some of our villages – many of our villages. They recognize the challenges that can come with weather. He said that they are very focused on making sure that Alaska is at the top of their areas-of-concern on the logistics.”
With regards to the size of vaccine distributions, they will take place on a per-capita basis, according to the Senator. He said Alaskans must focus on state and federal guidelines, social distancing, and wearing masks to do our part to prevent further perpetuation of the COVID spread.