While the numbers for a federal COVID-19 vaccine tracking system are likely to be underestimated due to reporting delays, the United States is likely to still fall short of its original target of 20 million individuals vaccinated against the new coronavirus by the end of the year.
According to the tracker of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), almost 2 million people received their first injection in a two-dose regimen, and more than 9.5 million doses, in all, were distributed to the states .
Assistant Secretary of Health and Human Services, Admiral Brett Giroir, detailed the effort outside the rhythm of mass immunization during a segment of ABC’s “Good Morning America” program.
Admiral Brett Giroir, director of the U.S. coronavirus diagnostic test, testified at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis on July 31, 2020 in Washington, DC. (Kevin Dietsch-Pool / Getty Images)
“The figure of 2 million is probably an underestimation, we distributed 10.8 million doses to the states,” said Giroir. “That number of 2 million is delayed by three to seven days. We certainly expect it to be a multiple of 2 million.”
“We will distribute another 4.7 million this week, so by the end of this week, in the hands of the states [will be] more than 15.5 million doses. “
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Giroir also drew up plans to distribute 20 million doses to the states by the first week of January, although that scheme does not yet reach 20 million doses in the arms of Americans by the end of 2020.
“It is moving forward, it is coming to an end, the end of the pandemic is near, but we have a lot of work to do and literally thousands of lives depend on how well we follow simple public health measures until the vaccine can be widely distributed,” he said. .
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Health officials have been pleading with the public to take mitigation measures, such as wearing masks and social distance, especially amid what was considered the worst COVID-19 of the month so far, with at least 5.3 million cases registered only in December, according to a report quoted by GMA.
In addition, former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb spoke about the slower rate of vaccinations during an interview on Sunday on CBS News’s “Face the Nation” program.
“The pace is slower than what has been declared, I think it is probably realistic to think that the pace will be a little slower, especially as we try to get through populations that are difficult to vaccinate next month.”
“The idea that we will reach 20 million vaccinations by the end of the year is probably not realistic at this point,” said Gottlieb.
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A partnership between the major drugstore chains Walgreens and CVS to administer injections at long-term care facilities in the states will have “a very large footprint,” said Gottlieb, but it follows struggles to vaccinate at-risk medical workers and nursing home residents .
“It shows that we need to invest more in these efforts,” added Gottlieb.