During his speech at the border wall in Alamo, Texas, President Donald Trump on Tuesday discussed the key achievements of his government.
In addition to talks on immigration and border security, Trump noted the rapid development of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“Nobody thought it was possible,” Trump said. “They said it would take five years … Well, we did it just like I said.”
The statement
Trump then called for the deployment of the vaccine to all 50 states and congratulated Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on handling the vaccine administration.
“And we’re now delivering it to states, including your state, where your governor and government are doing an excellent job of getting it administered in Texas.”
The facts
Texas is doing well compared to other states when it comes to administering the vaccine.
As of January 12, the CDC said 27.7 million doses of the vaccine had been distributed across the country, but only one-third (9.3 million) had been administered.
In the majority of countries, only 2.8 percent of the population received the vaccine. Texas is in the middle row of states. With a population of 29 million, Texas administered the vaccine to 3.1 percent of its population. It is higher than New York (3 percent) and California (2.1 percent).
Abbott boasted on Twitter of a Bloomberg report that ranks Texas number two among the top 20 states for the percentage of shots used. On January 13, Texas administered 911,461 doses of the vaccine, 46.8 percent of the vaccines distributed to the state.
Texas has administered more doses of Covid vaccine than any other state.
We rank # 2 among the top 20 states for the percentage of shots used.
Our numbers will continue to improve because we now only use the large-scale vaccination rooms.
Everything from today. pic.twitter.com/2NlU7jEnB1
– Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) 13 January 2021
Abbott said Texas expects to see 310,000 extra doses per week for the rest of January and up to 500,000 second doses for those who have already received the first dose of vaccine in previous weeks. Continued increases are expected, Abbott said, depending on federal government grants.
The state has established 28 designated hubs for the administration of the vaccine. Phase 1A included physicians and health professionals, while 1B included people older than 65 and people older than 16 with certain serious health conditions.
Abbott has the Texas Tribune that its only limitation at this point is supply, which is not something that the state of Texas controls.
“The provision of the vaccine comes only from the federal government, and for them it comes mainly from the manufacturing capacity” of the companies that manufacture the vaccine, Abt said.
Texas Health Commissioner John Hellerstedt said the pace and extent of the state’s rollout was “a wonderful operation” and said setting up the hubs would increase the pace of administration.
Our goal is to have no vaccines left by the end of the week.
Judge B. Glen Whitley of the Tarrant
“Our goal is to have no more vaccines by the end of the week,” Judge B. Glen Whitley of Tarrant said.
As of Jan. 13, Texas had 22,270 newly confirmed cases and a total of 1,775,619 confirmed cases, 247,016 probable cases and 30,624 deaths, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services. Johns Hopkins University and the New York Times reports total cases at more than 2 million. The state sees an upward trend of new business since Christmas.
Like most other states, the initial vaccination of the vaccine presented confusion and logistical challenges.
At the end of December, Hellerstedt issued a letter urging “entities that had been vaccinated to administer their entire grant with all deliberate speed.” The letter states that a significant proportion of the vaccines have probably not been administered yet. The department has asked vaccinated facilities to create timelines and use a “sense of urgency” to use the shots.
“We trust that you know your situation much better than we could, and therefore we ask you to take the initiative and move forward aggressively with the administration of all the vaccine dose you have received,” the letter reads.
At the beginning of 2021, the Texas Tribune said the vaccine has been “confusing” so far, with medical experts and others unsure how the state plans to administer the vaccine to about 30 million people. There have been ‘vague messages’ about details on who is eligible to get vaccinated, where to get it and how to plan a vaccination of civil servants, along with technical errors, logistical delays and even shortages in some areas.
Hospitals, pharmacies and health centers had to build new scheduling systems from scratch and struggled to keep up with the “anxious public wondering when their turn for the shot was coming.”
When Texas announced the public vaccination for the second group – people over the age of 65 or people aged 16 or older with certain health conditions, many health care providers were caught off guard. According to the Texas Tribune, phone lines jammed, websites crashed and lines got longer.
According to the Texas Tribune, at Memorial Hermann, a link was emailed to 50,000 selected, qualified patients to plan their vaccine at one of seven public clinics. But some recipients started forwarding the link to friends and family and even posted it on Instagram. After 36 hours, each space was booked and people who did not have to register were on the schedule. Staff members had to turn people away if they did not meet the state’s criteria for receiving a vaccine at that time.
Experts said it could take weeks before suppliers get enough vaccines to administer to Phase 1B members. There are almost 4 million adults who fall into this bracket. As of January 12, Texas had just over 2 million doses of the vaccine, according to the state’s COVID-19 vaccination panel.
During the first week, December 14, the state allocated 224,250 doses to 110 providers. In the second week, December 21, approximately 620,000 doses of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines were distributed to more than 1,100 suppliers in 185 provinces. These vaccines were for people in stage 1A, mostly doctors and health professionals. By the third week, December 28, 257,000 doses in 94 had been delivered to more than 350 providers, with an additional 121,875 doses of Pfizer to long-term care facilities. At this stage, a total of 1.2 million doses were given to 199 provinces.
By January 4, more than 325,000 first doses had been allocated to nearly 950 providers in 158 provinces, including 121,875 doses had gone to pharmacies and long-term care facilities. About 1.5 million doses reached 214 provinces.
In week 5, January 11, approximately 234 providers received first doses and approximately 500,000 second doses for those vaccinated weeks ago. At this point, the vaccine has been administered to residents in all 254 Texas counties.
The state estimates that vaccines will be available to the general public by spring.
The government
Mostly true.
Texas reports some of the best numbers for vaccine administration in the country. For the state with the second largest population, its implementation has been successful so far.