WASHINGTON – Amid Michigan’s worst coronavirus outbreak, scientists and public health officials are calling on the Biden government to flood the state with additional doses of vaccination.
So far, however, their plea has fallen on deaf ears. Instead, the federal government is sticking to a strategy for allocating vaccines that largely allocate doses to states and territories based on their population. As a result, most jurisdictions still receive similar per capita vaccine supplies, no matter how many people get sick there – or how many excess vaccine doses they have.
Experts have shown an increase in vaccine stocks in Michigan as a critical tool in combating the state’s most recent Covid-19 crisis. The state currently picks up nearly 7,000 new cases a day, just shy of its everyday high in December. Hospitalizations and deaths, which lag behind a few weeks with increasing numbers of cases, are also on the rise.
advertisement
“I will currently be raising a lot of vaccines to Michigan,” said Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health. “For me, it’s a non-decisive policy, and I’ll be curious to hear why the Biden team did not do so.”
At a news conference Wednesday, White House officials acknowledged that the situation in Michigan was dire. However, they gave no indication that they would send additional vaccines there to reduce the boom, when STAT asked. They argued that it was too early in the national vaccine campaign to start targeting the offer based on the rate.
advertisement
Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, said the agency is expanding the testing capacity in the state, addressing outbreaks in prisons and prisons in Michigan and increasing genomic sequences. The only strategy she did not come up with was to sharpen the supply of vaccines.
“In general, we still allocate vaccines based on population,” said Andy Slavitt, one of President Biden’s top advisers on pandemic response, during the briefing. “Obviously we will come to a place where more purposeful strategies will work, but for now I want to commit you to doing both.”
The permanent position of the administration is in conflict with public health experts such as the former commissioner for food and drug administration Scott Gottlieb; the medical researcher Eric Topol; and Public Health Advocate in Flint, Michigan Mona Hanna-Attisha.
Some have tried to quantify exactly what is at stake: one model, University of California, Berkeley, research programmer Joshua Schwab, projected Recently, doubling Michigan’s vaccines for two weeks could help prevent 10,000 hospitalizations and 1,200 deaths.
The Democratic governor of the state, Gretchen Whitmer, only asked President Biden on March 30 for additional vaccine supplies. But White House Covid-19 Response Coordinator Jeff Zients turned down the request, the Washington Post. report.
“I know some national public health experts have suggested it as an effective mitigation tool, and I know we will certainly welcome this approach in our state,” Whitmer reportedly said during a call between Biden’s governors and administrative advisers.
Instead, White House and CDC officials are working with Michigan to leverage its existing vaccine supply and potential deliveries within the state.
Despite his opposition to increasing the number of doses Michigan has received, Slavitt stressed that the federal vaccination attempt is not a one-time attempt.
As examples, he stressed that the Biden government is now allowing community health centers to order vaccines directly; to add “surgical” sites to the government’s retail pharmacy partnership and to locate federal vaccination sites in the most essential locations.
“I do not want to give the impression that we are – someone is sitting back and running this pandemic according to a formula,” Slavitt said. “At least that’s not true.”
To date, the White House’s population-based system for determining vaccine stocks has had little setback or criticism, although states have had different prices of Covid-19 for months.
In general, the federal vaccination effort is considered a great success. The US currently administers approximately 3 million doses per day. Nearly one-third of the country, and more than three-quarters of all older adults, have received at least one vaccine dose.
Biden announced on Tuesday that he would order the countries to be eligible for adult vaccine by April 19, almost two weeks earlier than his previous goal on May 1. Many states, including Michigan, have already done so.
Although the broader vaccination campaign is still accelerating, the momentum has increased to increase the number of vaccines to hotspots. The debate in Michigan reflects one in New Jersey, which experts say also needs additional vaccine provision. Federal officials also ignored that request.
However, four months into the US vaccination effort, the supply of vaccines is much less stringent.
“There are states like Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, Louisiana, Utah where the vaccine appointments are going to be unfinished for most of the day,” Jha said. ‘What we’re all arguing for is to push a lot of vaccines into Michigan over the next few weeks. And if certain countries with enough stock get 25% lower for two weeks, they are unlikely to miss it. Then bring them back to their normal level and catch up with them if they need to. ‘