WASHINGTON (AP) – The Trump administration on Tuesday suddenly turned the gears to speed up the shot to more people. The move came as cases and deaths rose to alarming new highs.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar has announced a series of important changes to increase the supply of vaccines, expand admission to more elderly people and provide more places for people to get shots. Administration officials describing the new policy conveyed a striking sense of urgency.
One change will have a few teeth. Azar said the federal government would henceforth base the allocation of vaccines from each state, in part on the successful portion of the administration of those already provided.
“If you do not use vaccines to which you are entitled, we must re-balance with states that use that vaccine,” Azar said at a news conference.
This will not happen overnight, only if officials try to find out if overdue reporting could be the reason for the underperformance. Currently, the government allocates vaccines based on the state population.
Azar also said the government would stop withholding the required second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, virtually doubling supply. Both of these shots require two doses to obtain optimal protection.
In addition, Washington urges states to immediately start vaccinating other groups lower on the priority scale, including people 65 and older and younger people with certain health problems.
The move to increase the supply of vaccines suits the outgoing administration better with the new Biden-Harris team. President Joe Biden said on Friday that he would release the most available vaccine doses to protect more people. He said he immediately supports the release of vaccines held back by health authorities, to ensure they are available to people in need of their second dose.
“This next phase reflects the urgency of the situation,” Azar said. “Every dose of vaccine sitting in a warehouse rather than going into an arm could mean one more death that could have been avoided.”
Initially, the government withheld second doses as a precaution against possible shortcomings in production. Now officials say they are confident that the required stock will be there. And people who need a second dose will enjoy preference.
“This is not an issue at the moment,” Vice President Mike Pence told governors during a call in the White House. A recording was provided to The Associated Press.
Azar also gave states the green light to point out more places where people can shoot. These sites could include tens of thousands of pharmacies, federally supported community health centers and low-income communities, and mass vaccination sites already being set up in some states.
The spate of changes has raised questions among some local officials, who are still trying to get vaccination campaigns in full swing.
As of Monday morning, the government had distributed about 27.7 million doses to states, U.S. territories and major cities. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention online tracker, only about 9.3 million people got their first chance. This means that only about 34% of the available vaccines have been administered.
Initially, the shots were fired at health workers and residents of the nursing home. Those who were 75 years and older were next in line. But even in the vaccination of the limited group of people, problems arose. Some workers in the hospital and nursing home are reluctant to get the vaccine. The planning issues caused delays with the shots of nursing homes.
Some states, including Arizona, have or plan to open mass centerswhich aims to vaccinate thousands of people a day in one place. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis has opened vaccinations for people 65 and older. In other states, local health authorities have begun asking residents 65 and older to register. In anticipation, the vaccination campaign would be expanded.
Although Azar said the shift in strategy was a natural evolution of the Trump administration’s efforts, he recently raised questions on Friday about Biden’s call to be cautious about supplying supplies.
On Tuesday, he also tried to divert the blame to the states for the slow uptake of vaccines. Azar said some states “prescribe too much and try to administer every single dose of vaccine, leading to bottlenecks.
Azar also criticized what he called “the hospitalization of the distribution of vaccines”, saying: “we have too much vaccine sitting in freezers in hospitals.”
Government officials and local officials will certainly point out that it was the federal government that recommended putting health workers at the forefront of the vaccination line.
The Trump administration has made a crash attempt to develop, manufacture and deliver vaccines in hopes of avoiding a recurrence of earlier coronavirus testing. It is called ‘Operation Warp Speed’, and has yielded two extremely effective vaccines, with more on the way.
Each state has its own plan for who should be vaccinated, based on CDC recommendations that give first priority to health workers and residents of nursing homes. Some critics believe that the government’s planning should have helped states administer the shots after they were delivered. Congress recently approved more than $ 8 billion for it.
The slow rate of vaccination has frustrated many Americans at a time when the death toll from the coronavirus is still rising. According to the Johns Hopkins database, more than 376,000 people have died in the US.
Azar said the rate of vaccinations has increased, and is on track to reach 1 million daily within a few weeks. But the American Hospital Association estimates 1.8 million vaccinations a day, seven days a week, to reach widespread immunity by the middle of this year. In his first 100 days, Biden set a goal of 100 million shots.
Local public health officials were surprised by Tuesday’s announcement and scrambled to find out how the changes could be implemented, said Adriane Casalotti of NACCHO, the National Association of County and City Health Officials.
‘All levels of government’s public health system must be on the same page. “Surprises do not benefit anyone,” she said.
Leaving more groups in the queue “suddenly makes a lot more people who might be eligible and definitely interested, and we need to have the systems to get the vaccine,” Casalotti added.
But administrative officials pressed their case urgently.
“We think the vaccination of (more) individuals can now really make a big difference in the hospitalizations you will see in your area of jurisdiction, it says now four to six weeks,” CDC director Robert Redfield told the governors said. and added that this was his strong recommendation.
Biden is expected to give a speech on Thursday outlining his plans. He is looking for a turnaround in his first 100 days.
Azar said they would brief the Biden transition team on the changes, but did not ask for their blessing.
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AP writers Alan Suderman in Richmond, Virginia; Candice Choi in New York; Carole Feldman in Washington; Lauran Neergaard in Alexandria, Virginia; and Michelle R. Smith in Providence, Rhode Island ;, contributed.