Enlarge / An indication on the doorway to a pharmacy reads “Covid-19 Vaccine Not But Obtainable,” November 23, 2020 in Burbank, California. (credit score: Getty | Robyn Beck)

Particular person states will finally resolve who will get the primary 6.four million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, which will probably be distributed primarily based on every state’s inhabitants reasonably than the degrees of illness unfold or variety of high-risk folks.

The method, introduced in a press briefing Tuesday, is a departure from earlier plans and displays the frenzied effort to vaccinate a rustic of practically 330 million as rapidly as attainable.

Prime officers for Operation Warp Pace—the federal authorities’s program to swiftly develop and ship COVID-19 vaccines and therapies—mentioned on the briefing that the present method is meant to “maintain this straightforward.” Nevertheless, the potential for state-by-state variation in early entry to vaccines might simply turn out to be difficult—and time is ticking for states to get their distribution plans clarified. There’s only a matter of weeks earlier than the Meals and Drug Administration could grant an emergency authorization for a vaccine by Pfizer and BioNTech.