mRNA Vaccines and EUA

Emergency Use Authorization will end. What then?

Whatever you may currently think about the SARS-CoV-2 vaccines, it is a fact that more than 5.41 billion people worldwide have received a dose of some type of COVID-19 vaccine, equal to about 70.5 percent of the world population. In the United States as of October 17, 2022, 494.74 million “initial protocol doses” of SARS-CoV-2 vaccine have been administered, together with 138.16 million “booster” doses. 265.59 million US residents have received at least one dose, and 226.59 million have completed the initial vaccination protocol (see this link), out of a total population of 335.49 million (67.5%). In terms of the logistics of development, manufacturing and deployment of a novel injectable biologic product, this is undeniably a major achievement. Of the SARS-CoV-2 mRNA vaccine doses administered in the United States as of October 19, 2022, 375.64 million were manufactured by Pfizer/Bio-N-Tech, and 237.61 doses by Moderna, for a total of 613.25 million mRNA vaccine doses administered. In the European Union, the corresponding numbers are 641.89M doses of Pfizer/Bio-N-Tech and 153.16M doses of Moderna for an EU total of 795.05M mRNA vaccine doses, and a grand total of 1 Billion, 408.3 million doses of mRNA vaccines in these two regions. All this involves a novel technology, product and large scale manufacturing process which was created, passed non-clinical and clinical development and was massively manufactured, distributed and globally deployed in less than three years.