Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin visits National Guard troops stationed at the US Capitol and its perimeter on January 29, 2021 at the Capitol in Washington, DC.
Manuel Balce Ceneta | Getty Images
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin has approved sending more than 1,000 active duty troops to help deliver Covid-19 vaccines to the United States, a member of President Joe Biden’s coronavirus response team announced on Friday.
Some of the troops will arrive in California in the next 10 days and begin operations on February 15, with other states to follow, Andy Slavitt, senior adviser to Biden’s Covid-19 response team, told reporters.
“The military’s critical role in supporting the sites will help vaccinate thousands of people each day and ensure that all Americans who want a vaccine receive them,” he said during the White House press conference.
Biden is trying to accelerate the pace of vaccinations in the United States after a slower-than-expected implementation under former President Donald Trump. The United States distributed about 57.4 million doses of vaccines, but only about 35.2 million were administered until Thursday at 6 am Eastern Time, according to data compiled by the Control Centers and Disease Prevention.
The Pentagon is working with the Federal Emergency Management Agency to expedite the delivery of the shots and is also evaluating a request to send up to 10,000 soldiers to support vaccination efforts across the country. FEMA and the Department of Defense will jointly determine when active members are no longer needed.
The 1,110 active duty soldiers will make up five teams and involve units from the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps, according to the Department of Defense. The troops will include nurses and medical staff who will help administer Pfizer and Moderna’s two-dose vaccines, according to the agency.
Slavitt also said the United States is using the Defense Production Act to help Pfizer meet its manufacturing targets for its vaccine. The company said on Tuesday that it plans to deliver 200 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine to the United States by May, ahead of the initial July forecast.
“I think the use of the Defense Production Act is one of the things that is allowing Pfizer to meet the targets,” he said. “They announced an acceleration of their goals for when they will be able to deliver vaccines. And I think our partnership with them is one of those reasons. I won’t say that is the whole reason, but it is certainly a critical factor. “
Federal officials are also putting pressure on states to administer shots more quickly. On Monday, Slavitt said that some health professionals were regularly withholding vaccines for the second injection, causing vaccination appointments to be canceled and preventing some Americans from receiving the first doses.
“We want to make it clear that we understand why healthcare providers did this, but that it doesn’t have to and it shouldn’t happen,” he told reporters on Monday, adding that US officials know that Covid’s vaccine shipments to states are often unpredictable during the initial launch in late December.
“We fully understand that this was a direct result of the lack of predictability that many states and providers had regarding how many doses they would receive,” he said. “This is one of the reasons why we announced last week that the federal government will provide a continuous three-week window on vaccines that will be sent.”
US officials also expect vaccine supply to increase after Johnson & Johnson’s Covid-19 vaccine is authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration, which could happen later this month. The FDA scheduled a meeting of its Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee on February 26 to discuss the vaccine, and the United States could authorize it the next day.
Slavitt said the United States will use all available options to speed up the production of the J&J vaccine.
“As is the case with other vaccines, we have not found that the level of manufacture allows us to have as much vaccine as we think we need to leave the gate,” he said.