The New York governor threatened to fine hospitals if they did not use their quota of COVID-19 vaccine quickly enough. His South Carolina counterpart warned health professionals that they 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.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said on Wednesday that the government will allow more pharmacies to start giving vaccines to speed up the process. If health workers are not lining up fast enough, he said, it is okay to expand eligibility to lower priority groups.
“We need to not be overly prescriptive about this, especially as we see governors leaving vaccines in freezers instead of putting them in people’s arms,” he said.
On Wednesday, more than three weeks after the vaccination campaign began in the United States, 5.3 million people received their first injection of the 17 million doses distributed so far, 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.
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.
In much of the country, health professionals and nursing home residents are receiving priority for limited initial vaccine supplies at this stage. But the pressure is increasing to allow other groups to speak out. Louisiana began vaccinating the elderly on Monday, while Alaska and Mississippi gave permission for the elderly to start receiving vaccines in the coming days.
The United States has about 21 million health workers and 3 million residents of nursing homes and other long-term care centers. The CDC said that about 512,000 people at these centers were vaccinated through a partnership between the government and the drugstore chains CVS and Walgreens.
Government officials in recent days have reported that the number of people receiving vaccines has accelerated to around half a million a day, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease specialist, said the pace may soon reach 1 million or more.
Fauci estimated that between 70% and 85% of the US population will need to be vaccinated to achieve “herd immunity”, a goal he said could be achieved early next fall. That means 280 million people.
Azar announced that in addition to the nursing home program, pharmacies in 19 chains will be allowed to help now dispense injections to ease the pressure on hospitals, which have been the main vaccine suppliers so far. More than 40,000 drugstores will eventually be involved, he said.
Pharmacies will still have to follow state guidelines for those who get in line first.
The death toll in the U.S., however, has risen to around 360,000. The deaths of COVID-19 set another one-day record at 3,775 on Tuesday, although officials warned that the numbers around the holidays could fluctuate dramatically because some health agencies lag behind in reporting cases and then reach it .
Concerns have also grown about a new, more contagious variant of the virus. In Southern California, San Diego County health officials confirmed 24 cases, the highest concentration known to date in the United States. Cases have also been reported in Colorado, Florida, Georgia and New York.
With cases and hospitalizations also skyrocketing, politicians are becoming aggressive in trying to speed up the vaccination campaign. The governors of California, Maryland and North Carolina have said they will use the National Guard.
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 give vaccines to people who are not on the priority list if doses are in danger of being missed. He also wants to expand the range of professionals who dispense doses.
The pace was so slow in New York that Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday threatened to fine hospitals up to $ 100,000 if they didn’t finish their first round of vaccines by the end of the week. He also threatened to stop sending the vaccine to hospitals that do not use their share promptly.
“Move quickly. We are serious, ”warned Cuomo. “If you don’t want to be fined, don’t participate in the program. It is not a mandatory program. “
The delays prompted New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio to call for increased eligibility, and on Wednesday he announced a plan to provide vaccines to 10,000 city police officers by Sunday.
But Cuomo immediately rejected that idea, saying, “We need to get the health population done first, because they are the front line.”