Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks with Alex Azar, secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS), not pictured, before receiving the vaccine Moderna Inc. Covid-19 during an event at the NIH Clinical Center Masur Auditorium in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, on Tuesday, December 22, 2020. The National Institutes of Health is hosting a live vaccination event to kick off the organization’s efforts for its employees on the front lines of the pandemic. Photographer: Patrick Semansky / Associated Press / Bloomberg via Getty Images
Bloomberg | Bloomberg | Getty Images
The slower-than-expected launch of the Covid vaccine in the United States was “disappointing,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on Thursday.
Officials at Operation Warp Speed, President Donald Trump’s vaccine program, had previously said the country would immunize 20 million people with the first of two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine in December. But the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say that out of more than 12.4 million doses distributed, just under 2.8 million have been administered.
“We would like to see everything go well and have 20 million doses in people today, at the end of (year) 2020, which was the projection. Obviously, it didn’t happen and that is disappointing, ”said Fauci on NBC’s” Today “program. “Hopefully, when you enter the first weeks of January, the momentum will take us to the point where we want to be.”
States and counties need more resources to speed up the rate of vaccination, said Fauci. Trump, in recent days, has tried to defend his government’s vaccine launch, saying it is the responsibility of states to administer the vaccines as soon as they are applied by Operation Warp Speed.
Michael Pratt, a spokesman for the program, said earlier this week that the CDC data is probably wrong due to reporting delays.
“Operation Warp Speed continues on its way to having approximately 40 million doses of vaccine and allocating 20 million doses for the first vaccinations by the end of December 2020, with distribution of the 20 million first doses in the first week of January , as states make requests from them, “he said in a statement.
Dr. Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at the Children’s Hospital of Pennsylvania, said Thursday on CNN that the federal government has invested heavily in vaccine development, but has failed to match that effort when it comes to distribution and administration.
“The urgency we brought to make a vaccine and the money we brought to make a vaccine, we spent $ 24 billion doing essentially a similar response to the Manhattan Project … That’s the part of the vaccine,” he said. “Now comes the vaccination part, which is just as difficult and will also require a similar response to the Manhattan Project.”
“The federal government needs to step up its response to vaccination in the same way that it stepped up response to vaccine manufacturing,” said Offit, who is also a voting member of the Vaccines and Related Biologicals Council of the Food and Drug Administration Committee.
Dr. Jonathan Reiner, professor of medicine and surgery at the George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Services, called for “mass vaccination” events on Thursday. He said the government should consider turning venues such as polling stations, football stadiums and racetracks into temporary vaccination clinics.
“We need to vaccinate about two million people a day … as opposed to 150,000 people a day. And I just don’t see the urgency,” he told CNN. “We need to get into mass vaccination mode and we need to do it now.”