The New York Times (9/2, Kaplan, Wu, Thomas) reports the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “has notified public health officials in all 50 states and five large cities to prepare to distribute a coronavirus vaccine to health care workers and other high-risk groups as soon as late October or early November.” The Times adds that both NIAID Director Dr. Anthony Fauci and FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn have said recently “that a vaccine could be available for certain groups before clinical trials have been completed, if the data is overwhelmingly positive.”

McClatchy (9/2, Wilner) reports that CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield “sent a letter last week to the nation’s governors,” asking “them to do everything in their power to eliminate hurdles for vaccine distribution sites to be fully operational by Nov. 1.”

Bloomberg (9/2, Tozzi, Cortez) reports that the letter said the CDC and HHS are “rapidly making preparations to implement large-scale distribution of COVID-19 vaccines in the fall of 2020.”

The Hill (9/2, Wilson) reports that HHS Secretary Alex Azar on Tuesday “told governors on a call with the coronavirus task force...that the CDC is working with states to develop a distribution model once a vaccine candidate proves itself safe and effective.”