This indicates remarkable progress, especially if you consider that at the end of December less than 3 million doses were administered in total and governors asked for more supply.
While there are still hiccups and hurdles, Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, says the “all hands on deck approach” has finally begun to bear fruit.
“I prayed fast.” That was Hannan’s reaction when she first heard that the US had to distribute and administer millions of vaccine doses.
The word unprecedented is widely used throughout this pandemic, but when Hannan adds up every piece that had to fall into place to make the program a success, there is no better word.
To begin with, the American healthcare system presents many challenges. “Our healthcare system is a private sector system. It is not run by the government and you are launching a product offered by the government,” Hannan said. “It’s just completely new, unprecedented.”
Then there are the smaller details. Hannan said if you simply think about the amount of vaccine that websites receive – one consignment of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine contains more than a thousand doses – that in itself is a challenge. This is in contrast to the usual vaccination programs for children when doses are ordered in steps of 10.
Add that there are three different authorized vaccines, with three different doses and things get even more complicated.
These are the little things
Hannan says one of the biggest factors that has contributed to American success is the simple fact that vaccine supply has increased.
Now more than 100 million doses of Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna vaccines have been delivered to states and each company has promised hundreds of millions more by the summer.
Johnson & Johnson was a slow starter, but the company estimates it could deliver 100 million doses by May.
But manufacturers have also tried to shorten the details to facilitate the vaccination efforts.
Pfizer was able to devise several spray combinations to ensure that the full six doses were withdrawn, which automatically increased the stock.
Pfizer also worked to get approval to store the vaccine for a period of two weeks at less cold temperatures. “This alternative temperature for the transport and storage of the undiluted vials is significant and makes it possible to transport and store the vials under flexible conditions, among other things,” said dr. Peter Marks, director of the FDA’s Center for Biological Evaluation and Research.
And later this year, Pfizer plans to submit a new formulation of its vaccine that does not require the addition of a diluent, removing one step in the process for those who administer vaccines.
No silver bullet
Although there have been examples of states improving their vaccination efforts, Hannan says there has not been a single strategy that has worked across the board.
“States are set up differently. Some of them are centralized, others are no longer rural, you know,” Hannan says. “I do think the demand differs in different states.”
This difference may affect how states may view successes on vaccination.
An analysis by CNN, for example, determined that New York and North Dakota would be the first to vaccinate all willing adults, but that is for different reasons.
New York has one of the fastest deployments in the country, vaccinating nearly 1% of its population per day, but it has to move so fast because demand is high. At least 85% of adults in the state say they have been vaccinated or are planning to.
North Dakota is vaccinated more slowly, but it has a higher hesitation rate. About 68% of adults in the state say they have been vaccinated or are planning to, which means the end goal will be lower.
Go big or go home
In the beginning, healthcare workers and long-term residents were the priority, a strategy that Hannan agrees with, but she also said that it initially slowed down because the strategy was more methodical.
“In many ways it was slower than we thought. It was slower than anyone wanted. Obviously we’re in a pandemic. But I think we did very well. And we certainly learned from that. our mistakes. ”
One of the lessons that came out of it was the importance of massive vaccination sites. The Biden government on Monday announced the opening of another of these sites in Oregon. The administration says it will open 36 mass vaccination sites by the end of next week and have the combined capacity to administer 124,000 doses per day.
There are also improvements in the scheduling tools, Hannan said.
“Every week there is just an improvement in the scheduling systems. There were obviously a lot of brackets, I think a lot of us had to deal with the chaos to find an appointment. But such small things made it easier.”
Eligible for all
As the Biden government is up for election by the end of the month for everyone 16 and older, Hannan says it will be important to maintain momentum.
“If you do not stay for it, you can snap your fingers and suddenly you have people waiting and you are not scheduled,” Hannan said.
But even while the election is being thrown wide open, dr. Scott Gottlieb, former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and a current board member at Pfizer, said the U.S. is approaching a point where supply will outweigh demand within a few weeks.
“I think a lot of states are going to see themselves with excess supply and excess appointments, so it would be a shame to look back and realize in retrospect that we probably should have put more vaccine in some of these hotspots to sniff them out earlier.” he said on Sunday on ‘Face the Nation’.
While Hannan says that the US has found great success in reaching those who want to be vaccinated, the biggest challenge ahead will be to reach the sections of the population who may be reluctant or simply have not tried to be vaccinated. And that would require a very different strategy.
“We will have to do everything we can. We will have to use community leaders, church leaders. We will have to take the vaccine to people, we will have to get it to private doctors.”