“Variants that have been identified recently seem to spread more easily,” said CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky on Wednesday. “They are more transmissible, which can lead to more cases and more stress on our already overloaded system.”
See why some vaccines are “stuck on the shelves”
She explained that some of the 47 million doses distributed have just arrived in the states, while others are still going through a process of distributing days to reach their final destination.
“So there is a certain delay between the time they are distributed and the time they can be administered,” said Walensky. There is also a delay in sending reports to administrations, he added.
“And then there are some doses that we need to make sure, for the four or five day window that we give people in order to get their second injection … we need to make sure that it is available for them when they return for their second shot”, she added.
But even when all of these factors are taken into account, there are still a few “millions” of doses left “on the shelves,” she said.
“This is one of the bottlenecks and one of the ways we have to bring resources to the states, to ensure that they can quickly administer the vaccines that are on their shelves,” said Walensky.
Service members can be sent to up to 100 locations across the country to help boost administrations, said the FEMA spokesman.
The federal government is also changing the rules to help expand the list of people who can administer vaccines, said Covid-19 White House response coordinator Jeff Zients on Wednesday.
“(The Department of Health and Human Services) will amend the current Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act – also known as the PREP Law – to allow doctors and nurses who have recently retired or become inactive to administer injections and to allow anyone currently licensed to vaccinate in his state to administer injections across the state, “said Zients.
The action, said Zients, will help “get more vaccinators in the field”.
Why you need to be cautious even after the vaccine
Once Americans receive both doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, they should not see this as a “free pass” to leave all security measures behind, said Dr. Anthony Fauci on Wednesday. At least not yet.
Maximum immunity against the virus begins about 10 days to “two weeks and beyond” after the second dose, said Fauci during CNN’s mayor’s office.
But actions like traveling are still not a good idea.
“If you really have to travel and that is essential, then it would obviously be necessary to do that,” he said. “But we don’t want people to think that because they were vaccinated, then other public health recommendations just don’t apply.”
“Therefore, being vaccinated does not mean ‘I now have a free pass to travel’, nor does it say ‘I have a free pass to set aside all public health measures’ that we talk about all the time.
CDC: No sign of vaccine safety concerns
As for the vaccines themselves, here’s what scientists know so far.
Serious allergic reactions, known as anaphylaxis, have so far not been a problem, according to Walensky.
“Based on our most recent data … we found that there were 2.1 cases of anaphylaxis per million administered doses of Moderna and 6.2 cases of anaphylaxis per million administered doses of Pfizer,” said Walensky during a response team. Covid-19 White House briefing.
“Let me be clear. These are rare treatable results, and Covid-19 vaccines are safe,” she said.
The director of the CDC added that it is also important to put the numbers in context and consider that the risk of falling ill with the virus is “much greater” than the risk of allergy to the vaccine.
Other mild side effects, such as pain in the arm, feeling tired and muscle pain after the injection are “all normal and expected,” said Walensky.
“And these symptoms mean that your immune system is speeding up and the vaccine is really working,” she added.
CNN’s Maggie Fox, Geneva Sands, Barbara Starr, Andrea Diaz and Ben Tinker contributed to this report.