US Invests in 6 Vaccines: First Safe COVID-19 Vaccine Will be “Free for All Americans”

The United States on Thursday announced that the country has invested in several potential coronavirus vaccines. Upon the success of anyone among them, it has assured that the citizens of U.S. will receive it for free.

A health department official, Paul Mango said that the vaccine will be made available for free, to ensure that there is no compromise on the safety of the citizens. “We are not at all reducing the regulatory rigor with which we will evaluate and hopefully approve vaccines.”

Washington has invested more than 10 billion USD in six different vaccine projects. Contracts have been signed to deliver millions of doses upon being proven effective. Upon being proven effective, the government will be paying for the vaccine and the costs will be mostly covered by the public insurers. Further, “most” of the commercial or private insurers have agreed to wave off the cost as well. “We are on track to deliver hundreds of millions of doses by January 2021,” the official added.

Previously, President Trump had announced that a vaccine will be in the U.S. before November 3, that is before he contests for the next term of Presidential elections. However, several medical experts worry that if it does occur, it will be bypassing several safety concerns.

Earlier this week, Russia announced that it has discovered the first vaccine to fight against the novel coronavirus. However, the State’s top infectious disease specialist has said that they doubt if the vaccine is safe and effective. "I hope that the Russians have actually definitively proven that the vaccine is safe and effective, but I seriously doubt that they've done that," he said.