The Trump administration’s decision to release all available doses, instead of reserving half for a second dose of a two-dose regimen, comes days after Biden’s transition team said it would do so by taking office. Biden also said he would launch a broader vaccination strategy on Thursday, as he targets 100 million vaccinations in the first 100 days of his government.
If there is an interruption in vaccine manufacturing, the new doses available will be prioritized for booster vaccines for people who have already received their first dose, said a senior Trump administration official. People who receive the Pfizer vaccine should receive their booster injection three weeks later, and the wait is four weeks for those who receive Moderna.
As of Sunday, the United States had 38 million vaccines against coronavirus, and about 25 million of them have been delivered to states so far, the official said. About 9 million people received their first dose by Monday, according to data from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. This falls far short of expectations set by federal health officials, who pointed to 50 million vaccinations by the end of January, although the pace has accelerated in recent days.
Governors also faced growing criticism for being too prescriptive about who can be vaccinated, which led to injections on the shelves. Many states initially followed federal guidelines for vaccinating frontline health workers and nursing home residents and workers, but as states struggled to vaccinate these groups, more states expanded eligibility for people 65 and older.
For months, states warned that they did not have enough money to increase the largest vaccination effort in the history of the United States. They pleaded with the federal government and Congress for more funding, so that they could create educational campaigns, increase IT staff and infrastructure, and create mass vaccination sites where people could safely receive vaccines.
Lawmakers have included nearly $ 9 billion for the state’s vaccination efforts in their end-of-year coronavirus relief package, but the money is arriving too late to accelerate the initial phase of vaccinations.
The Trump administration is also planning to accelerate a plan to start offering coronavirus injections in pharmacies, first reported by POLITICO. The federal government can also send personnel to states to make mass vaccines if requested, said Azar.
The vaccination effort “has been excessively hospitalized so far in many states, so we have the vaccine, the demand is there. We need to get those orders,” said Azar.
Axios first reported the change in Trump’s management strategy.