The most ambitious vaccine campaign in U.S. history is about to begin.

This weekend, 2.9 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech are set to travel by plane and guarded truck from Michigan and Wisconsin to designated locations, mostly hospitals, in all 50 states. Pfizer said the first shipment would leave its Kalamazoo, Mich., plant, above, early Sunday morning. The first injections are expected to be given by Monday to high-risk health care workers.

FedEx and UPS will transport the vaccine throughout most of the country, and each delivery will be followed by shipments of extra dry ice a day later (the vaccine needs to be kept at minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit).

Here’s how the vaccine will get from the lab to the patient and how many vaccine doses your state will get.

The turning point in the pandemic comes after the Food and Drug Administration authorized Pfizer’s vaccine for emergency use on Friday night, only 11 months after the development process began. Vaccines typically take years to develop.
Kriston Jae Bethel for The New York Times

2. The emergency use authorization of the Pfizer vaccine comes amid jaw-dropping coronavirus numbers: The U.S. is approaching 300,000 virus-related deaths.

The U.S. reached a single-day case record on Friday, with more than 236,000 new cases added and more than 2,900 deaths. Above, testing in Lansdale, Pa.

A vast majority of people will need to be vaccinated to create a decisive decline in infections. Health officials are scrambling to make that happen and to dispel doubt about the vaccines’ safety.

Not everyone is as sure — even among people who know the toll the virus can take. Some are skeptical; some are impatient; others feel sidelined.
The New York Times