“What we need from the federal government is that they started distributing vaccines earlier this year,” said Casey Katims, a federal liaison for the state of Washington.
Trump administration officials say it is the responsibility of states to shoot down weapons. But it is not clear whether the emergency measures of states will be enough to get the most ambitious vaccination campaign in American history back on track. And the mishmash of state approaches create growing inequalities across the country in which the vaccine can get. Some pharmacists have started offering residual doses of the sought-after vaccine to the general public before spoiling it. In other parts of the country, high-risk people – including front-line workers – are still waiting for their shots.
“The spread is moving slower than people had hoped,” said Clay Marsh, Covid-19 tsar in West Virginia. “We are not satisfied because we want to get vaccinations in every West Virginia’s arm, but it’s a complicated process.”
Officials with Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s vaccination accelerator, said holidays, blizzards and a significant backlog contributed to the smaller-than-expected vaccination numbers in December. More than 2.6 million people have been vaccinated out of the 20 million that the federal government has repeatedly promised.
Administrative officials reject the idea that they have not given states sufficient support. Federal officials talk to states several times a week and monitor data across the country to “learn how we can better help future efforts,” a Department of Health and Human Services spokesman said. And Vice President Mike Pence’s office said the coronavirus task force in the White House is calling for governors to be called later this week or early next week after they did not meet during the holidays.
Meanwhile, federal health experts, including Surgeon General Jerome Adams and infectious disease researcher Anthony Fauci, said the rate of vaccination was now picking up. The White House estimates that half a million people are vaccinated every day – but the scene on the ground differs from state to state.
While random shoppers in a grocery store in Washington, DC happiness elderly people in Florida camp overnight to secure their doses.
West Virginia, on the other hand, is on track to complete vaccinations of residents and nursing home staff before some states even begin it – mainly because health officials in West Virginia have broken the federal strategy of relying on Walgreens and CVS to distribute shots to long-term care facilities. . .
But West Virginia also had an embarrassment last week when 44 people, many of them elderly, were given Regeneron antibody treatment rather than the intended vaccine. It was a good reminder that the nationwide vaccination was “more complicated than a military operation,” Marsh said.
At the federal level, officials are divided over the effort to deliver more shots. Warp Speed chief Moncef Slaoui said on Sunday that the government was in talks with vaccine maker Moderna to halve doses of his shot for many adults – only to be reprimanded late Monday night by a statement from the Food and Drug Administration in which suppliers are asked to stick to science.
‘We know that some of these discussions about changing the dosing schedule or dose are based on the belief that [doing so helps] get more vaccine for the public faster, ”wrote Commissioner Stephen Hahn and FDA vaccine chief Peter Marks. “Making such changes that are not supported by sufficient scientific evidence can ultimately be counterproductive to public health.”
State health officials are also wary of the half-dose approach. “We will not change the way the vaccine is given, it will follow the manufacturer’s instructions,” Angela Ling, incident commander of the Department of Health and Human Services in Nebraska, told a news conference on Monday.
But state and local governments are still desperate for more vaccines and support, and in the absence of federal direction, they are hitting on their own.
“Governors talk to other governors, chiefs of staff and chiefs of staff, look at logistics, share best practices, what works, what does not work,” California Gavin Newsom told a news conference on Monday. The state fired about one-third of its 1.2 million shots.
Public health experts say Trump’s team places too much responsibility on cash-strapped state health departments that are already struggling with a raging pandemic.
A HHS spokesman said in a statement that the Trump administration began planning with states in September; jurisdictions provided the necessary supplies, such as needles; and has so far sent $ 340 million to help states plan for distribution, with another $ 8.75 billion on the way.
“We strongly encourage states and jurisdictions to experience vaccine vaccination to extend their administrative efforts to all priority groups to ensure that vaccines reach this population as quickly as possible and that doses do not go unused on the shelves, “wrote the spokesperson.
Elected President Joe Biden has promised a more robust federal partnership with states, arguing that the Covid-19 vaccination effort is “deteriorating” and promising to increase federal support and funding, along with its 100 million vaccines effort in its first 100 days to distribute. .
“All of this – vaccinations, testing, protective equipment – will require more funding from Congress than has just been approved,” he said in a speech last week. “That is why I will be proposing a Covid action package early next year and challenging Congress to respond quickly.”