The New York governor is threatening to fine hospitals that do not use their quota of COVID-19 vaccine quickly enough. His South Carolina counterpart says health workers have until January 15 to have an injection or go to the end of the line. The California governor wants to use dentists to vaccinate people.
With growing frustration with the slow release of the vaccine, state leaders and other US politicians are increasing the pressure, improvising and trying to circumvent the rules to get vaccines faster.
“Move quickly. We are serious, ”New York Governor Andrew Cuomo warned hospitals on Tuesday. “If you don’t want to be fined, don’t participate in the program. It is not a mandatory program. “
As of Wednesday morning, only 4.8 million people in the U.S. had received their first injection of 17 million distributed doses, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Although the count is believed to be lower due to the delay in reporting, health officials are still far behind where they would like to go.
Meanwhile, the death toll in the U.S. has risen to 357,000. The deaths of COVID-19 set another 3,775 day record on Tuesday, although officials have warned that the numbers around the holidays can fluctuate dramatically because some health agencies lag behind in case reporting, so they rush to reach them.
Health workers and nursing home residents are receiving priority for the most part in the United States, but some places are starting to move on to the next stage, involving the elderly.
The slow implementation has been attributed to a number of problems, including Washington’s lack of funding and guidance, incompatibilities between supply and demand, a patchwork of approaches by state and local governments, distrust of the vaccine and confusion created by the holidays.
Politicians are becoming aggressive in an attempt to speed up the campaign. The governors of California, Maryland and North Carolina said they would use the National Guard to speed things up.
Maryland Governor Larry Hogan also warned that any institution that has not administered at least 75% of its first doses may have reduced future allocations until they can speed up vaccinations.
While about 270,000 doses have been placed directly in the hands of frontline vaccinators in the state in the past three weeks, Hogan said that only about 77,000 people had been vaccinated by Tuesday, or about 1.3% of the state’s population.
Governor Henry McMaster of South Carolina has warned that healthcare professionals will lose their place in the queue if they don’t act quickly to get their vaccines. As of Monday, the state had distributed less than half of its initial quota for the Pfizer vaccine to about 43,000 people.
In California, where only 1% of the population has been vaccinated, Governor Gavin Newsom said he wants to give providers the flexibility to dispense injections to people who are not on the priority list if doses are at risk of being lost.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said it is time to expand eligibility to include people over 75 and essential workers such as police and firefighters to get things going.
“Give them the freedom to vaccinate and they will vaccinate thousands, then tens of thousands, then hundreds of thousands, then millions,” said de Blasio. “What they don’t need is to be ashamed. What they don’t need is more bureaucracy. What they don’t need is a threat of fines. ”
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