BOSTON — Gov. Charlie Baker on Thursday emphasized the importance of letting the development for any potential coronavirus vaccine go through the established process before being distributed to anyone in Massachusetts.
Baker, speaking one day after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told states to prepare to roll out a vaccine distribution by the end of October, said this is something that cannot be rushed.
“The last thing we should do at this point in time is change the way these processes work,” Baker said. “I get why people want the vaccine to be here tomorrow, but we have a tried and true process for developing these sorts of things, and it needs to be pursued according to the rules, protocols and standards that have always been in place.
If a vaccine is found, it could be from a company right here in Massachusetts. Moderna in Cambridge and Pfizer in Andover are both working through the process, and Baker said Johnson & Johnson is working through Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Moderna has entered the third phase of clinical trials.
Several companies nationwide are testing their vaccines on as many as 30,000 people.Subscribe
Baker said he wouldn’t comment on the timing of the CDC’s advisory, which projects distribution of a vaccine just days before the presidential election.
“I don’t know the answer to that and I’m not going to speak to it,” he said.
Instead, the governor said it should be clinical trials rather than any specific date that determine the date of distribution.
“I have no idea how long those trials are going to take, but those trials need to be able to run completely through their course, the data associated with those trials needs to be collected, and people need to then make decisions on what should happen next based on the results of those trials,” he said.
Massachusetts Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders said Thursday the state annually distributes about 3.2 million vaccine doses. She said a working group is considering how to make for the most equitable distribution of a coronavirus vaccine.
Experts said the state’s distribution infrastructure for the flu vaccine puts it “one step ahead” when it comes to the coronavirus vaccine.
There have been more than 6 million confirmed coronavirus cases and more than 187,000 deaths in America due to the virus.
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