Vaccine supply was short in the early weeks of distribution in the U.S. But efforts by the Biden administration and vaccine makers Moderna (MRNA 7.49%) and Pfizer (PFE 1.87%) are producing results. In this Motley Fool Live video recorded on Feb. 26, 2021, healthcare and cannabis bureau chief Corinne Cardina and Fool.com contributor Adria Cimino discuss the number of vaccine doses distributed and what to expect in the coming weeks.
Corinne Cardina: Let's begin, Adria, by talking about the two vaccines already being administered in the U.S., of course -- one by Moderna, one by Pfizer and BioNTech. What should investors know about how the rollout is going so far? What do you think?
Adria Cimino: Well, so far, 68 million doses have been administered. That's 13% of the population that's received the first dose, and 6% of the population that we can say is fully vaccinated now.
If we want to look at Moderna and Pfizer, so far Pfizer is ahead as far as how many doses of their vaccine have been given out, with 35 million doses so far for the Pfizer vaccine, and 33 million doses for Moderna. At the start, people were worried and still there are some areas where supply is a problem. But so far, if we look worldwide, the U.S. administered more doses of vaccine so far than any other country. We're doing pretty well. Also, there's Biden's recent purchase of enough vaccine doses from Pfizer, Moderna to cover the whole population in the U.S.
All in all, we can say that the U.S. is making some pretty good progress, and we'll see in a couple of months how things go really to meet the goal of Biden to vaccinate everyone by the end of summer. But so far so good.
Corinne Cardina: Totally. Pfizer is ahead, but I will say they got a head start. They got the EUA [Emergency Use Authorization] before Moderna, and I've been pretty impressed to see Moderna make up a lot of that ground. They're only 2 million doses behind Pfizer, so that could be interpreted as a good sign.
