Grabbing a cold one

摘要

ASKED WHAT keeps her up at night as Texas prepares for the arrival of the first covid-19 vaccines, Imelda Garcia from the state's health department singles out two opposite scenarios: either a serious shortage of vaccine, or lots of it sitting around unused because nobody wants to take it. These two worries are on the minds of many other public-health experts as 6.4m doses of vaccine stand ready to be dispatched across America, on a nod by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the federal drug regulator. That nod is expected on December 10th or shortly after, when the FDA will make a decision on the first covid-19 vaccine submitted for approval in America, a jab developed by the drug firms Pfizer and BioN-Tech. Moderna, the developer of another vaccine, is expected to undergo FDA review on December 17th. Both vaccines are about 95% effective if administered in a two-dose regimen. They are unlikely to stem Ameri- ca's runaway epidemic until next spring, at best. But America is leading the way on covid-19 vaccination-so lessons from its early experience will be closely watched in Europe and other parts of the world.