President Biden’s coronavirus advisers are confident more vaccine is coming, Dr. Vivek Murthy, who is the nominee for Surgeon General, said Friday.
The transition team started speaking with companies making the vaccines to try to get an idea of how much supply was really available and how quickly production could be stepped up, Murthy told a webcast sponsored by the US Conference of Mayors.
“We’ve been deeply involved in conversations with the companies on a very regular basis and those were conversations that, frankly, started even before the election to try to understand just more closely what the supply was, what the challenges were, what the roadblocks were to getting even more supply accelerated, what the potential failure spots would be that we need to look out for and plan for,” Murthy said.
“Those conversations, I think, have given us more confidence that there is more supply coming, and that it will continue to steadily increase over the next few months,” Murthy added.
“And part of what we’ve talked about also is the importance of making that data as clearly available and transparent so that mayors and the general public can also see a lot of what we’re seeing as well, can have some confidence about what the supply looks like over the coming weeks.”
State and local leaders want and need to know, so they can plan, he said.
“One of the most clear pieces of feedback that we got from governors and echoed by mayors as well was that they needed more information on when the supply was coming. They needed more than four or five days notice, that they needed ideally several weeks notice so they can plan accordingly and set up their operations, and we heard that loud and clear,” Murthy said.
“So, I think what you will see in the coming weeks is a greater focus on that transparency around supply so that you have a better sense of what we’re seeing, and also so that you have a sense of what supply also will be coming to your state over the coming weeks. “
