Governors bitterly accused the Trump administration on Friday of deceiving the states about the amount of COVID-19 vaccine they can expect if they increase vaccinations for senior citizens and others. But the government attributed the anger to confusion and wrong expectations of the states.
Meanwhile, the race between the vaccine and the virus may be on the verge of heating up: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has warned that the new, more contagious variant first seen in Britain is likely to dominate in March version in the US will be.
The CDC said the variant is about 50% more contagious than the virus that causes most cases in this country.
“We want to sound the alarm,” said Dr. Jay Butler, CDC deputy director for infectious diseases, said.
The clash over the pace of the government’s COVID-19 vaccine allocations threatens to escalate tensions between the Trump administration and some states over who are responsible for the relatively slow onset of vaccination against the plague that has killed more than 390,000 Americans has.
Oregon announced earlier this week that it would increase vaccinations to about 760,000 residents aged 65 and older, as well as teachers and childminders, due to promises that the vaccine’s allocation will increase.
But Democratic Gov. Kate Brown said these plans are now in disarray due to “national-level fraud” by the government.
Brown said via Twitter that General Gustave F. Perna, who is leading Operation Warp Speed, told her that states would not receive increased loads of vaccine from the national stock next week because there are no federal reserve doses .
Because of what she called a ‘cruel joke’, Brown said the state would now postpone the vaccination of senior citizens until February 8 instead of January 23 and would initially limit it to people aged 80 and older.
Late Friday, Oregon health officials said a case of the variant was diagnosed in the Portland area in a patient who had no travel history.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, a Democrat, said he was among several governors who were misled by federal officials about the availability of a strategic amount of doses.
“This one is so far beyond the pale to be almost unimaginable,” he said. ‘Who is going to be prosecuted for this? What should the states do if they have been lied to and all their plans have been made in this regard? ”
Alena Yarmosky, a spokeswoman for Virginia Rov. Ralph Northam, said governors on Tuesday were explicitly told they would receive additional doses. Northam, a Democrat and a doctor, moved quickly to announce that the state would increase vaccine admissions.
The Northam government is now trying to determine if the additional stock does not exist, Yarmosky said.
“What we see is entirely in line with the dysfunction that characterized the Trump administration’s response to COVID-19. “The president-elect (Joe) Biden cannot be sworn in fast enough,” she said.
Michael Pratt, a spokesman for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, said states may have been confused in their expectations, but that the doses sent to them did not decrease.
Biden alluded to the tension on Friday and promised to communicate better with states so they know how much vaccine will come and when.
“At the moment we hear that they can not plan because they do not know,” he said. “It stops when we’re in the office.”
As of Friday, the government has distributed more than 31 million doses to states, U.S. territories and major cities. About 12.3 million doses have been administered, according to the online detection by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There is no evidence that the new variant causes more serious diseases or is transmitted otherwise, and wearing a mask and other precautions still works, the CDC said. Scientists have also expressed confidence that the vaccines are still effective against them.
According to CDC, the variant was detected in 12 states and diagnosed in only 76 reported cases. However, CDC scientists have probably spread more in the US than the numbers suggest.
The two COVID-19 vaccines approved by Pfizer and Moderna for use in the United States are designed to be given in two doses, three or four weeks apart.
For weeks, Operation Warp Speed kept large amounts of vaccine in reserve to ensure that those who received their first dose received their second on time. The practice was a hedge against possible delays in production. When Alex Azar, HHS secretary, announced on Tuesday that he was terminating the practice, it was interpreted that it essentially doubled the expected offer.
But there was another big change: he also called on states to open vaccinations for everyone over the age of 65 and younger with certain health problems, although most had not yet finished handing out shots to all the health workers not.
The result was a scramble by state and local health authorities to determine exactly how much vaccine they would receive in the coming weeks and how to increase shots for a public with higher expectations.
Pratt said doses held in reserve to deliver second shots were released last week. However, it is unclear whether they all sent out before the Trump administration’s announcement earlier this week that states should open up vaccination to more people. He said states get the required second doses they need and that the number of first doses is stable.
Pfizer said it works 24 hours a day to produce millions of doses a day, adding: “We do not foresee any problems in meeting the commitments we have made” to deliver Operation Warp Speed. Moderna did not immediately respond to questions about its stock.
In Mary’s Woods, a retirement community in the suburbs of Portland, Oregon, residents have expressed fears that they will have to wait longer for their vaccinations. Several have COVID-19, and others fear it may spread to them soon.
“I’m pretty disappointed,” said 75-year-old Joan Burns. “We are being sequestered and it is difficult to talk to anyone. I’m as anxious as I have ever been, and I know it’s increasing. We’re actually just playing the chance. ”
Elsewhere in the country, in severely affected California, where 3,675 people died of COVID-19 last week, officials are rushing them to help overwhelming diggers. The emergency services office said it had secured 98 refrigerated trailers to serve as temporary mortuaries.
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Associated Press author Gillian Flaccus in Portland, Oregon, contributed to this report.