Dr. Scott Gottlieb on Wednesday said it could take close to two years before a coronavirus vaccine is available to the point where there would be widespread inoculation in the U.S.
“I don’t know the exact manufacturing timeline for these different companies, but it’s definitely well into 2021 in terms of a vaccine available in the hundreds of millions of doses that you would need to mass inoculate a population,” Dr. Gottlieb, a former head of the Food and Drug Administration under President Trump, said on CNBC.
He said China is the furthest ahead in terms of clinical development.
“But I think it’s well into 2021 until anyone is going to have a vaccine available in the kinds of quantities that would be required to inoculate the entire United States or the entire European continent,” Dr. Gottlieb said.
“So we are a ways off in terms of having a vaccine available at scale, at that kind of scale,” he said. “But in doses of millions, it could be available much sooner than that.”
Pfizer on Tuesday said it could have millions of doses of a vaccine available before the end of the year.
The White House recently announced Dr. Gottlieb as one of about 200 industry leaders and experts helping advise the administration on a strategy to deal with the virus.
Dr. Gottlieb has also been advising state leaders such as Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and Connecticut Gov. Ned Lamont on coronavirus responses.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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