Black Doctors COVID Consortium Holds Vaccine Clinic As Johnson & Johnson To Start Shipping Out Vaccines To Region
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Black Doctors COVID Consortium is holding a vaccine clinic at Temple's Liacouras Center on Monday. It will be open from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Meanwhile, nearly 4 million doses of the recently approved Johnson & Johnson COVID-19 vaccine started shipping out Monday morning and are expecting to arrive in the Philadelphia region this week.
"So this is a much easier logistical vaccine to administer," CBS News Medical Contributor Dr. David Agus said.
It's the third coronavirus vaccine to receive an emergency use authorization from the FDA. The first that requires only one shot.
"This is a really impressive vaccine because it's refrigerated, not frozen," Dr. Agus said. "So I'm very enthusiastic about this vaccine and I truly believe whichever vaccine you can get first, take it."
While the efficacy rate to prevent getting sick from COVID-19 isn't as high as Pfizer or Moderna, trial data shows J&J's is 100% effective at preventing hospitalizations and deaths.
"I will take the first one that is offered to me. I want that protection as soon as possible," Dr. Deborah Fuller of the University of Washington.
Johnson & Johnson projects 20 million doses will be available by the end of this month and 100 million by the end of June.
"We're going to get tens of thousands of additional vaccines per week, per state," Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said. "It's just going to get us to the finish line that much faster,"
Pfizer and Moderna have promised 600 million doses by the summer, meaning every American who wants a vaccine should then be able to get one.
"And we're not done yet. There are at least two or three other vaccines that are in trials right now," National Institutes of Health Director Dr. Francis Collins said.
Among them, vaccines from Novavax and AstraZeneca, which are finishing U.S trials before submitting applications to the FDA.
Back in Philadelphia where the Black Doctors COVID Consortium is administering the Moderna vaccine, people were lined up hours before the clinic opened.
The last time the Consortium held one of these clinics they were able to inoculate 4,000 people. There is no appointment necessary, but you must be in group 1B and they are asking that you live in one of the city's hardest-hit areas.
