President Joe Biden Visiting Baltimore: Report

BALTIMORE, MD — President Joe Biden will reportedly visit Baltimore Wednesday for a briefing on COVID-19 vaccine production.

The president will meet with leaders of pharmaceutical companies Johnson & Johnson and Merck at a facility run by Emergent BioSolutions, according to WBAL.

Emergent BioSolutions, based in Gaithersburg, is a biopharmaceutical company has committed to produce 100 million doses of the J&J vaccine by June and 1 billion doses by the end of the year.

About 1,000 employees at Emergent BioSolutions' two Baltimore facilities are working on the vaccine's production, WBAL reported.

So far 13.3 percent of Baltimore's population has received the COVID-19 vaccine, Health Commissioner Letitia Dzirasa said at a news conference Friday.

"We are confident in the safety of the vaccine and encourage residents to get any vaccine they may secure," Dzirasa said.

"All of the vaccines have been proven effective," Dzirasa said, addressing the fact that the J&J vaccine has a lower rate of effectiveness in clinical trials than the other two COVID-19 vaccines approved for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration.

The J&J vaccine was 66.3 percent effective in clinical trials at preventing laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 illness, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Clinical trials showed the Pfizer vaccine was 95 percent effective at preventing laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 illness, while Moderna was 94.1 percent effective in people who received two doses and had no evidence of being previously infected.

Baltimore's health commissioner advised residents to get the vaccine, regardless of which one is available.

Said Dzirasa: "Having a vaccine is better than no vaccine."

See Also:

• MD Reaches COVID Vaccine Milestone, J&J Shots Arrive This Week
• More COVID-19 Mass Vaccination Sites Planned In Maryland: Hogan