Watch the first U.S. COVID-19 vaccine shipments leave Pfizer's manufacturing plant

Trucks carrying the first shipment of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine. — (Image credit: JEFF KOWALSKY/AFP via Getty Images)

The vaccine is on the road.

The first American shipments of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, which was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use, went out Sunday, as UPS, Boyle, and FedEx trucks pulled out of a Pfizer manufacturing plant in Portage, Michigan, to deliver them to hundreds of sites across the country. The watershed moment marks the first phase of what should be the largest vaccination effort in American history, and it could be a major step toward ending the coronavirus pandemic.

The initial shipments will be staggered, with around 3 million doses going to 145 sites Monday, 425 more sites Tuesday, and 66 sites Wednesday. Hospitals and other locations that are equipped to meet the ultra-cold storage requirements for the vaccine will be on the receiving end of those batches, The Associated Press reports, and all vaccination sites, as identified by each state, will reportedly get their doses within three weeks. Read more at The Associated Press and watch a truck pull out from the plant below. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.