WASHINGTON (AP) – With less than a month of a mass vaccination campaign to halt the COVID-19 pandemic, the Trump administration changed unexpectedly on Tuesday to speed up vaccine delivery. A slow start has generated widespread concern on the part of states and public health officials.
Now, Health and Human Services Alex Azar has announced two major changes. First, the government will no longer insure the required second doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, practically doubling the supply. Second, states must immediately start vaccinating other lower-priority groups, including people aged 65 and over and younger people with certain health problems.
The move better aligns outgoing management with the new Biden-Harris team. On Friday, President-elect Joe Biden said he would quickly release most of the vaccine doses available to protect more people. He said he supported the immediate launch of vaccines that health officials were avoiding as a precaution, to ensure they would be available to people who needed their second dose.
“We were withholding second doses as a safety stock,” said Azar at ABC. “We now believe that our manufacturing is predictable enough to ensure that second doses are available to people in production in progress. So everything is now available to our states and our health care providers. “
At the same time, he gave the green light to states to dramatically expand the number of people eligible to receive vaccines.
“We are calling on our governors to vaccinate people aged 65 and over and under 65 with a (health problem) because we have to expand the group,” he said.
As of Monday morning, the government had distributed about 25.5 million doses to states, U.S. territories and major cities. But only about 9 million people received their first chance. This means that only about 35% of the available vaccines have been administered.
Initially, the photos went to health professionals and nursing home residents. Those 75 and older were next in line. But problems have even arisen in vaccinating this limited group of people. Some hospital and nursing home staff are hesitant to get the vaccine. Scheduling problems led to delays in sending vaccines to nursing homes.
Some states, including Arizona, have or plan to open mass vaccination centers, with the aim of inoculating thousands of people a day in a single location. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis initiated the vaccination for people aged 65 and over. In other states, local health officials have started asking residents 65 and older to register, predicting that the vaccination campaign would be expanded.
“We need to reach more management channels,” said Azar. “We have to take it to pharmacies, community health centers.
“We will send teams to support states that are undertaking mass vaccination efforts, if they so wish,” he added.
Although Azar said the move was a natural evolution of the Trump administration’s efforts, on Friday he had raised questions about whether Biden’s call to speed up supplies was prudent. The Trump administration, which has directed an intensive effort to develop and manufacture vaccines, hopes to avoid a repeat of previous disasters with coronavirus testing. Called “Operation Warp Speed”, the initiative produced two highly effective vaccines, with more on the way.
Each state has its own plan for who should be vaccinated, based on the recommendations of the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC recommendations give priority to health professionals and residents of nursing homes.
But the slow pace of the vaccine’s release frustrated many Americans at a time when the number of deaths from coronavirus continued to rise. More than 376,000 people died, according to the Johns Hopkins database.
US surgeon general Jerome Adams said hundreds of thousands of people are being vaccinated every day across the country, but the pace of vaccinations needs to improve.
“We are in a race against this virus and, frankly, we are behind it,” Adams told Fox & Friends. “The good news is that 700,000 people are being vaccinated every day. We are going to reach 1 million people and we need to continue to increase that pace. “
In Philadelphia, health department spokesman James Garrow said the new direction in Washington will take time to be discovered before it affects the distribution of vaccines in the city. “This is an unexpected change after months of planning,” said Garrow.
Washington, DC on Monday made vaccines available to residents age 65 and older and the system was quickly overwhelmed. People reported problems with the site for registration and waiting hours to register over the phone. A message on the city website on Tuesday morning said: “All 6,700 vaccination appointments available for the week of 11/01/21 have been completed.”
Biden is due to deliver a speech on Thursday outlining his plan to speed up vaccines for more people in the first part of his government. His transition team promised to release as many doses of the vaccine as possible, rather than continuing Trump’s administration policy of withholding millions of doses to ensure that there would be enough supply to allow those who took the first injection to receive a second injection.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine requires a second injection about three weeks after the first vaccination. Another vaccine, produced by Moderna, requires a second injection about four weeks later. One-shot vaccines are still being tested.
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AP writers Candice Choi in New York and Carole Feldman in Washington contributed.