Last week amid a rocky and chaotic deployment of the country’s coronavirus vaccination campaign, the Trump administration issued new guidelines that increase vaccine admission to 65-year-olds and older.
The outgoing Secretary of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar, said there was no reason for states to vaccinate all health care providers before opening vaccinations for older Americans and other vulnerable populations, and compared the situation to entering a plane at an airport gate.
“You do not have to wait until literally every person from a group goes on board before they go to the next one,” Azar said of his efforts to eliminate a troubled bottleneck that delayed vaccination efforts, although more people COVID -19.
But in expanding the suitability because the vaccine supply is still insufficient, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has created a new problem.
Everyone now wants to get on the plane at the same time.
The result has been anger and frustration in NJ and elsewhere, as hundreds of thousands of people try to access an ever-limited number of vaccines in a state that, according to officials, receives only about 100,000 doses a week.
With the expansion of suitability, available appointments to get the vaccine in New Jersey are now scarce to non-existence.
“The vaccine supply is still extremely limited and will continue for some time to come,” said Judith Persichilli, New Jersey Health Commissioner.
One health expert who supported the CDC call to expand fitness, meanwhile, warned that an even bigger problem was looming. Will there be enough trained medical staff available to administer the vaccine as more stock becomes available?
“What’s starting to emerge now is an understanding that there are not enough staff on the front lines to support the vaccination process to get all the injections into people’s arms,” said Perry N. Halkitis, dean of Rutgers. . School of Public Health.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar spoke at a news conference last Tuesday about expanding vaccine vaccination.AP
New Jersey, like most other states, initially targeted health care workers and nursing homes for the scarce supply of vaccine. But it quickly became apparent that vaccination rates were much lower than in many other states.
As of Friday, New Jersey, according to the latest CDC data, classified only 29 of the 50 states in vaccinations per 100,000 people.
Similar issues were seen in New York, which came under fire after it was announced that the state had to discard the doses of vaccines because there were not enough people to enter the group with the highest risk and the highest priority to be vaccinated .
Health officials in New Jersey quickly adopted the new CDC guidelines last week, which increase vaccine admission for anyone over the age of 65. In addition, the state said those between 16 and 64 with specific medical conditions are also allowed to sign up for the vaccine and have included two million smokers who face health risks if they contract the virus.
Despite the long wait times for appointments created by the extension of suitability, Halkitis said state leaders should reconsider the phased approach once it was clear that vaccinations were lower than those eligible in the first group.
He noted that only a third of the doses available nationwide were actually used, in part because a number of health professionals chose not to be vaccinated.
Still, he said lack of vaccine in hand is not his biggest concern.
“The problem we have has less to do with the supply of the vaccine than the actual person giving the vaccine,” he said, referring to the need for health professionals who can give shots.
In a speech on Friday, Elected President Joe Biden called the vaccine blast in the United States “a sad failure” and announced plans to get more people vaccinated, create more places to be vaccinated, more medical mobilize teams to put the shots in the arms of people, increase supply and “take it out the door as soon as possible.”
Biden said he wants to increase the availability of vaccines in pharmacies, set up mobile clinics to get vaccines in underserved communities, while encouraging all countries to expand vaccine admission for people 65 and older.
Meanwhile, New Jersey officials said the state will continue to review the recommendations of the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group of medical and public health experts who are developing recommendations on vaccine use.
“We can change groups as we move forward and hopefully prepare for more vaccination,” Persichilli said.
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Ted Sherman can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL.