U.S. to invest $3 billion in COVID-19 vaccine supply chain – White House official

By Carl O’Donnell and Lisa Lambert

(Reuters) -The U.S. plans to invest $3 billion in the vaccine supply chain as it continues to work to position itself as a leading supplier of vaccines for the world, a top U.S. health official said on Thursday.

The funding, which will begin to be distributed in the coming weeks, will focus on manufacturers of the inputs used in COVID-19 vaccine production as well as facilities that fill and package vaccine vials, White House COVID adviser Jeffrey Zients said during a news conference.

“The investments we are making, the $3 billion, are in U.S. companies that will expand their capacity for critical supplies,” Zients said.

He added that areas of focus will include lipids, bioreactor bags, tubing, needles, syringes, and personal protective equipment. The White House has not yet selected specific companies to receive the funds.

U.S. demand for COVID-19 vaccines remains high as the White House prepares to begin offering a third booster shot to Americans later this month, pending a regulator greenlight. The United States also plans to give hundreds of millions of shots to other countries during the remainder of the year.

Top U.S. infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci added that he would not be surprised if a third dose became standard for COVID-19 vaccines that originally were expected to require two shots.

U.S. cases of COVID-19 have surged to a seven-day average of more than 150,000 per day, up from less than 10,000 in June, according to federal data, as the contagious new Delta variant continues to circulate.

The daily average of COVID-19 deaths has risen this week to more than 950 from around 900 last week, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky said.

Fauci downplayed concerns about a new COVID-19 variant known as Mu, or B.1.621, that some scientists are concerned could be resistant to vaccines.

“Even when you have variants that do diminish somewhat the efficacy of vaccines, the vaccines still are quite effective against variants of that type,” Fauci said.

(Reporting by Carl O’Donnell in New York and Ahmed Aboulenein and Lisa Lambert in Washington, D.C.; Editing by Leslie Adler and Mark Porter)

U.S. counter-intelligence chief worried about China, Russia threats to vaccine supply chain

By Jonathan Landay

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. counter-intelligence chief said on Tuesday he was worried about threats from China and Russia to disrupt the coronavirus vaccine supply chain in the United States.

William Evanina, director of the U.S. National Counterintelligence and Security Center, told an online Washington Post event that U.S. adversaries were trying to interfere with Operation Warp Speed, the U.S. government operation distributing the vaccines.

“Our adversaries are trying to disrupt that supply chain,” he said. Asked which adversaries he was particularly concerned about, he replied, “I would say China and Russia right now.”

The Chinese and Russian embassies did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Evanina’s assertion. Russia and China have denied U.S. accusations that hackers linked to both governments tried to steal data from vaccine manufacturers.

U.S. states are scrambling to accelerate inoculations as infections and deaths surge – COVID-19 has claimed on average about 3,200 lives nationwide every day over the past week.

Since the pandemic began more than 10 months ago nearly 375,000 people in the country have died, according to a Reuters count.

Evanina said that his agency was working with the U.S. Army and the Department of Health and Human Services to ensure the safe “transportation” of the vaccines “from the manufacturing site to the end-user inoculation.”

Vaccines available are made by Pfizer and BioNTech and Moderna. Nearly 9 million Americans have received the first of two doses, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, less than one-third of the 25 million doses distributed by the federal government.

Public health experts have said no U.S. state has so far come close to using up its federal vaccine allotments, a much slower-than-expected roll-out blamed in part on rigid rules sharply limiting who can be inoculated.

(Reporting by Jonathan Landay; Writing by Doina Chiacu; Editing by Rosalba O’Brien and Grant McCool)