The Biden administration is resisting calls to change its vaccine distribution strategy as cases of COVID-19 increase in some states and demand lags behind.
Several leading health experts, as well as Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer
Gretchen Whitmer Overnight Health Care: White House Refusal Refuses to Send More Vaccine Doses to Certain States White House warns states to expect weekly low Y&J vaccines are rejected by the White House for sending more vaccine doses to certain states. Lawmakers from both parties are appealing to Biden to send more vaccines to Michigan. (D) and members of the state congressional delegation, called on the Biden government to send additional vaccine doses to their state amid a worrying increase in cases and hospitalizations there.
But on Friday, the White House rejected Michigan’s request, saying it did not want to take away any vaccine doses from other parts of the country. The White House’s current strategy for vaccine distribution is based on population, not hotspots.
However, the situation highlights the differences between the states, while in the midst of a boom in wanting more doses of vaccination, other states have thousands of unfulfilled appointments.
Mississippi, for example, has more than 70,000 appointments available Thursday, reports The New York Times.
Whitmer said she would continue to strive for an increase in doses of vaccines for her condition, after successfully dismissing the case in a call with President Biden
Joe BidenBiden taps the safety leader in the workplace in California as head of OSHA Romney, which explodes the end of the filibuster. Thursday night.
“I have addressed the issue for a resurgence strategy,” Whitmer said at a news conference Friday. “At this point, it’s not being deployed, but I’m not giving up.”
She said the vaccine should use doses to “scramble where the hotspots are.”
While Michigan is currently by far the worst hit, Whitmer said other states may soon be in a position to ask for more doses as well. Other hotspot states are largely in the northeast, including New Jersey, New York and Rhode Island.
The White House said it would offer additional staff to other hard-hit states other than Michigan, but did not specify which people were in talks.
“Today it’s Michigan and the Middle East, tomorrow, it could be a different part of our country,” Whitmer said.
The White House said Friday that it will send additional staff to help with vaccinations to hard-hit countries such as Michigan, as well as additional testing capabilities and treatments.
Eric Topol, professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research, called in the extra staff to help with vaccinations amid the increase in Michigan, which is a sign that the government in Biden is finally taking it seriously, saying it is already a hatch for several weeks.
Like other states, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows that there is a significant gap between doses delivered to Michigan and the number actually administered, which means that there is room for the state to increase vaccinations, even without more doses, Topol said.
But broadly, he said more doses for hotspots would also make sense, rather than the current formula that is largely population-based.
“Population-based doesn’t make sense,” he said. “This is where it’s needed.”
Jeff Zients
Jeff Zients: Public Health Care: White House Refusal Refuses to Send More Vaccine Doses to Certain States White House Warns States to Expect Weekly Low Y&J Vaccine Shipments White House Warns States to Weekly Low Y&J Vaccine Shipments in the White House expect to send more vaccine doses to certain states MORE, the White House coordinator for the COVID-19 response, defended the population-based formula Friday, saying that vaccines are needed all over the country, and that the government does not want to move more doses to hot spots like Michigan.
“There are tens of millions of people across the country in every state and country who have not yet been vaccinated,” Zients said. ‘And the fair and equitable way of distributing the vaccine is based on the adult population by state, tribe and territory. This is how it was done, and we will continue to do it. ”
“The virus is unpredictable,” he added. “We do not know where the next increase may occur in cases.”
As a majority of states are now eligible for vaccination for all adults, the problem in some parts of the country is starting to shift to supply that exceeds demand, rather than the other way around.
“As demand begins to weaken, so we’re going to try to recruit people who work in factories. That’s why we’re going to churches and all this other stuff,” Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine
Mike DeWine The doses of Johnson and Johnson’s vaccinations will decrease significantly next week. TV host and zoo Jack Hanna diagnosed with dementia. Here’s who is eligible for COVID-19 vaccines in each state MORE (R) Said at a news conference on Thursday.
Polls show that Republicans are more resistant to the vaccine than the general population. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll released in late March found that 29 percent of Republicans said they would “definitely not” get the vaccine, compared with 13 percent of people in general.
Republican Senate Leader Mitch McConnell
Addison (Mitch) Mitchell McConnellRomney explodes end of filibuster, SCOTUS McConnell expansion, GOP delays Biden’s executive order over SCOTUS Overnight Defense: Biden proposes 3B defense budget | Criticism comes from left and right in Pentagon moves more to new show for extremists (Ky.) Requested members of his party to be vaccinated.
“As a Republican, I took the vaccine as soon as it was my turn,” he said during an event in Kentucky in late March. “I want to encourage all Republican men to do that.”
As vaccinations progress, new cases remain relatively stable on a national basis, although at a high level of around 65,000 per day. In Michigan, however, cases are fast, as are hospitalizations, which rose from about 850 in early March to more than 3,000, according to data compiled by The New York Times.
The persistent toll of the virus, even with available vaccines, underscores the need to get it into the arms as soon as possible.
“The biggest tragedy at the moment is that we have vaccines on hand that can prevent hospitalizations and death and that it makes sense that we should act quickly to try to prevent that from happening,” Jennifer Nuzzo, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “And so if there are states that are struggling more than others, I think it makes sense for them to get additional vaccines.”