The United States needs to be doing a better job with the launch of the Covid-19 vaccine, Deputy Health Secretary Admiral Brett Giroir said on Wednesday.
“Of course, we need to do a better job, but all vaccine programs start out a little bit slowly,” Giroir told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
He said he expects distribution to increase soon and that the United States is on track to distribute 20 million doses of vaccine by the first week of January.
“I know that we will distribute around 30 million more in January and potentially up to 50 million more in February,” he said.
As pharmacies begin to play a more important role in administering the vaccine, Giroir said he expects the pace to accelerate.
“We have a federal contract with 40,000 pharmacies – 60% of all pharmacies in the United States – to supply vaccines,” said Giroir. “The scale will increase very quickly as things progress and evolve.”
“Vaccines on the shelves are not good,” he added. “They need to be in people’s arms and we are not leaving stone unturned to do this.”
Some background: Operation Warp Speed is on track to fall well short of the 20 million vaccines it predicted would be administered by the end of December.
Nearly 2.6 million doses of vaccine have been administered in the United States, according to data provided to CNN by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.