#Third COVID-19 vaccine may be approved in January: official

A third COVID-19 vaccine could be OKed by the feds as soon as January, a top federal health official said Sunday.

“The next vaccine that is coming up, which would be J & J [Johnson & Johnson] or Janssen. We would expect that authorization to be submitted in January,” Admiral Brett Giroir, who is on the White House COVID-19 task force, told ABC News anchor George Stephanopoulos on “This Week.” said.

“We don’t know the results. But we’re very hopeful, by January, we’ll have at least three vaccines, with — with more to come.”

Giroir, an assistant secretary at the Department of Health and Human Services, said a vaccine may be available in the US to “anyone” who wants one by June.

“We are very confident that by June anyone in America who wants to have a vaccine will have an opportunity to have a vaccine,” he said.

Giroir said even without a third vaccine, the country is on track to distribute 20 million vaccine doses distributed at least by the first week in January, with shots from both Pfizer and Moderna being granted emergency use authorization

Approximately 30 million more doses are projected for the rest of January and another 50 million in February, Giroir said.

But Giroir stressed that Americans still need to stick to public health recommendations — like wearing a mask — despite the promise of help on the horizon.

“The most important thing that Americans need to know is, although we see the end of the pandemic in sight — and it will end with vaccination widespread in this country — we have a lot of work to do,” Giroir said.

“Really, the lives of tens of thousands of Americans depend on what we do.”