Operation Warp Speed leaders have waited more than two months to approve a plan for the distribution and administration of Covid-19 vaccines proposed by U.S. health officials, administrative officials said, leaving states little time for a conducting mass vaccination campaign amid a coronavirus boom.
Government officials and local officials have been seeking help in preparing for the largest vaccination program in U.S. history for months when the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention released a play in September to guide them.
The CDC wanted to start helping countries in June to get people vaccinated. But Operation Warp Speed officials rejected the agency’s plan to distribute vaccines. They adopted a similar plan in August just after exploring other options – and then kept the CDC’s playbook for states for two weeks for additional approval and issued it along with another document, officials said.
Operation Warp Speed was supposed to be a high watermark of the Trump administration’s coronavirus response, but it stumbled at the finish line due to problems with federal planning and foresight. The public-private partnership is now scrambling to speed up vaccinations, and suitability guidelines are being adjusted as states increase their ability to administer doses on a large scale.
“They did not plan the last centimeter of the last mile, the part that is most important – how you are going to vaccinate so many people quickly,” said dr. Bruce Gellin, a former health and human services officer, said. president of global vaccination at the Sabin Vaccine Institute.