WASHINGTON – The Pentagon is considering sending active-duty troops to large, federal coronavirus vaccination centers, an important departure for the department and the first major sign that the Biden government is taking more control of a program that states struggling to drive.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency hopes to set up about 100 vaccination stations nationwide as early as next month, and requested Wednesday night that the Pentagon send assistance to support the effort. The sites, and the use of the military in them, will require the approval of state governments.
While many state governors turned to their National Guard units to help with the massive effort to vaccinate Americans and transcend more contagious variants of the coronavirus, the role of the Pentagon was largely behind the scenes, providing assistance with logistic.
During his confirmation hearings last week, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said he would increase military support to manage the pandemic. Max Rose, mr. Austin’s senior adviser to Covid-19 said Thursday his first topic of conversation in meetings with senior leaders made it the ‘No’. 1 priority. ”
Sending troops to help set up yards, logistical assistance and even firearms is something the Department of Defense is ‘actively considering’, said Mr. Rose said. He declined to provide details and said Pentagon officials would carefully review FEMA’s request.
“Obviously we are going to request this request,” said John F. Kirby, the Pentagon’s press secretary, saying that after a review it will probably be filled with more national troops, reserve and active troops.
“I would say we talk for days, certainly not weeks, to get it,” he said. Kirby said. “We know there is an urgency.”
The military is likely to provide thousands of troops in the next few months, not unlike the mobilization the Trump administration put together a few years ago to supplement enforcement at the border with Mexico.
Many states and territories have set up large vaccination rooms, and more than half use members of the National Guard to give shots and use doctors, nurses, medics and others skilled in giving injections. FEMA, an agency within the Department of Homeland Security, has already told six states, two territories and Washington, DC that they will spend $ 1 billion on vaccination measures, including municipal vaccination sites.
It was not immediately clear where the vaccines would come from for new federal sites; they would most likely be drawn from the offer already given to individual states and territories. Most states did not come close to administering the vaccine they received.
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Answers to your vaccine questions
At present, more than 150 million people can be vaccinated – almost half of the population. But each state makes the final decision about who goes first. The country’s 21 million health workers and three million residents of long-term care facilities were the first to qualify. In mid-January, federal officials urged all states to be eligible for anyone 65 and older and for adults of any age with medical conditions at high risk of becoming seriously ill or dying of Covid-19 . Adults in the general population are at the back of the queue. If federal and state health officials can clear up bottlenecks in the distribution of vaccines, everyone 16 years and older will be eligible as early as spring or early summer. The vaccine has not been approved in children, although studies are underway. It can take months before a vaccine is available to anyone under the age of 16. Visit your health website for recent information on vaccination policies in your area.
You do not have to pay anything out of pocket to get the vaccine, although you will be asked for insurance information. If you do not have insurance, you should still receive the vaccine free of charge. Congress passed this spring legislation preventing insurers from applying any cost sharing, such as a co-payment or deductible. It was based on additional protection that pharmacies, doctors and hospitals prevented from patients, including those who were uninsured. Nevertheless, health experts are concerned that patients could end up in loopholes that make them vulnerable to surprising bills. This can happen to those who charge a doctor’s fee along with their vaccine, or Americans who have certain types of health coverage that do not fall under the new rules. If you get your vaccine at a doctor’s office or an urgent clinic, talk to them about possible hidden charges. To make sure you do not get a surprise bill, this is the best way to get your vaccine at a vaccination center or local pharmacy once the shots are more available.
It must be determined. It is possible that Covid-19 vaccinations will become an annual event, just like the flu shot. Or it could be that the benefits of the vaccine last longer than a year. We have to wait and see how durable the protection against the vaccines is. To determine this, researchers will be monitoring people who have been vaccinated to look for “breakthrough cases” – people who become ill despite being vaccinated with Covid-19. This is a sign of weakening of protection and will give researchers clues as to how long the vaccine will last. They will also monitor the levels of antibodies and T cells in the blood of vaccines to determine if and when a booster shot is needed. It is possible that people need boosters every few months, once a year or only every few years. It’s just a matter of waiting for the data.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, has already said he does not want ‘FEMA camps’ in his state. “This is not necessary in Florida,” he told reporters last week after the Biden government announced its plan to address the pandemic, including the FEMA websites. “All we need is more vaccine.”
The Trump administration largely prefers states to manage efforts to combat the pandemic, leaving governors protective equipment for health care workers and testing, contact detection, and other aspects of response. While speeding up pharmaceutical ventures to accelerate vaccine development, and offering guidance on who to prioritize to get shots, it has largely left states to manage their inventory.
State governments have experienced a number of problems getting their vaccines into the gun, including resistance among some health care and nursing home workers and others in preferential groups against the vaccine, and struggling in medical centers to manage their supplies.
The Biden government has set goals to get more Americans vaccinated quickly, but it is not clear that there will be enough supplies if it succeeds in speeding up the logistics system, especially with many Americans now waiting for second shots.
The federal government has reimbursed countries, many of which are struggling due to large tax revenues, for only 75 percent of their National Guard costs associated with coronavirus relief. The administration will increase it to 100 percent, including for the support needed to distribute and administer vaccines, until the end of September.
Zolan Kanno-Youngs reported.