Washington – Former Food and Drug Administration (FDA) commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb suggested on Sunday that the Biden administration should make more “tailor-made” efforts to ensure that coronavirus vaccines reach the arms of Americans in underserved communities.
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“I would take federal and state resources and create more personalized solutions that can be used in some of the hard-to-reach environments, some of the underserved communities, if you can move mobile vans to those communities, try to work through community groups, local providers, religious groups, community health centers to try to vaccinate the hardest to reach populations, “Gottlieb said in an interview with” Face the Nation “. “It is a very difficult effort. It is expensive. It is a personalized effort.”
Gottlieb, who led the FDA for almost two years under former President Donald Trump, said the new administration is “taking an all-out approach” to vaccine distribution, from supporting vaccination sites to sending vaccine doses directly to retail pharmacies. But he cautioned against dedicating too many federal funds to mass vaccination sites, as Americans who go there for their COVID-19 injections can be served by pharmacies at Walmart, Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens.
“I would be mobilizing federal resources for this type of mission and letting Walmart work out of easy demand and Rite Aid,” he said of reaching underserved communities.
Although the Biden administration has taken steps to accelerate the pace of vaccine administration, Gottlieb and other public health experts emphasized the new coronavirus variants first identified in the United Kingdom, South Africa and Brazil, expanding the need for Americans to be vaccinated. ASAP. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are about 1,000 reported cases of the UK strain, B.1.1.7, in 39 states, and more than a dozen reported cases of the South African variant, B. 1,351, in at least five states.
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The emergence of new variants has led vaccine manufacturers, such as Pfizer and Moderna, to begin developing new booster vaccines to deal with them. Gottlieb said drug makers must decide when to start switching to reinforcements in July and August.
“You don’t want to throw all your eggs in that basket, but you want to create a supply that you will have in the fall if you need those vaccines,” he said. “I think this is the point at which you are going to make that decision. The time to start the manufacturing process and actually get the vaccine off the line is about two months. So if you start manufacturing in July, you will start taking the vaccine in time for fall. “
While drug manufacturers in the U.S. are working on injections that protect against the new strains of coronavirus, authorities in the UK have decided to continue administering a vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, although it has been less effective in early trials against the South African variant.
Gottlieb said he understands the decision to continue using the Oxford / AstraZeneca injection as it is cheap, affordable and can be stored more easily. But he suggested that there is a “plan B” for another shot to send to regions where the South African variant becomes the dominant strain.
“If you are putting a vaccine in these markets that we know do not cover B.1.351, the South African variant, very well, if it exists, you run the risk of being able to select that variant in those markets,” he said. “And then you need a plan B on which vaccine you are going to implant in those regions if in fact B.1.351 becomes prevalent in those regions after you vaccinate with the AstraZeneca vaccine.”
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