Advisor: Biden Will Invoke Defense Production Act For Vaccine Production

The incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden will likely look into boosting vaccine production by invoking the Defense Production Act, according to a member of his team, Axios reports.

The law, according to Axios, lets the president tell the private sector to prioritize manufacturing in the interest of national defense.

While it is usually a wartime law, Biden will invoke it in order to help assure that “personal protective equipment, the test capacity and the raw materials for the vaccines are produced in adequate supply,” Biden adviser Dr. Celine Gounder told CNBC’s “Squawk Box,” according to Axios.

According to Gounder, the U.S. will oversee a big upshoot in testing to help track mild and asymptomatic cases of the coronavirus, which have been the toughest to pin down as the virus spreads like a wildfire.

There will also be more geonomic surveillance, which tracks virus mutations to pick up on new variants, such as the one recently cropping up in the U.K. that officials have said is even more contagious.

Gounder said geonomic surveillance had not been routinely done since the pandemic began.

So far, the government has allotted 400 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and Moderna, including a 100 million dose agreement with Pfizer last week, under Operation Warp Speed, which was set up to help get vaccines out to those in need. The new Pfizer agreement came after there were revelations of some states projected to get between 25 percent and 40 percent less vaccine doses than they were originally supposed to, Axios writes.

In addition, the U.S. has also secured 400 million doses of vaccines from Johnson & Johnson, AstraZeneca, Novavax, and Sanofi/GlaxoSmithKline, but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) hasn’t approved those yet.

The vaccines being ready so quickly was a relief for many, with financial analysts saying the vaccines should herald a quick recovery as they’re dispersed throughout 2021.

There have been challenges, though, including in the logistics area. Trucking company heads say the challenges will consist of keeping the vaccines at the right temperature and transporting the mass amounts needed.