A resident receives the Modern Covid-19 vaccine at a nursing home in Delray Beach, Florida, on December 30.
Photographer: Saul Martinez / Bloomberg
Photographer: Saul Martinez / Bloomberg
US health officials have recognized that a Covid-19 immunization campaign is starting from the beginning, increasing the prospect that the country’s total bet on vaccines could be affected by the same dysfunction that has hindered other measures to contain the pandemic.
Only about 2.7 million Americans were vaccinated as of Wednesday night in New York, according to Bloomberg’s vaccine tracker. With one day left in the year, this represented about 13.5% of the US’s stated goal of immunizing 20 million Americans by the end of 2020 – a number that has already been repeatedly reduced.
Click to view Bloomberg News Covid-19 Vaccine Tracker
The task of delivering injections that could end a pandemic that killed 341,000 residents in the United States is overwhelming a private medical system designed to maximize profits instead of providing public health. Governments and institutions are struggling with complex logistics to keep the shots cool, organizing cohorts of people to welcome them and persuading those who were skeptical of a flood of online misinformation.
Robert Wachter, chairman of the medical department at the University of California, San Francisco, said the Trump administration is repeating its grave mistakes in providing tests and personal protective equipment.
“It is yet another manifestation of the lack of a federal plan with adequate resources. It is the test problem now only applied to a different configuration. Not just testing, but PPE, ”said Wachter. “Each of them was sad. This can be tragic. With each passing day, if vaccines are on the shelves waiting to be administered, these are the people who will die because of that ”.
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Senior public health officials said the pace of vaccination will accelerate as early as next week. Nursing homes and other long-term care facilities are likely to receive more vaccines as the new year dawns and holidays diminish, said Nancy Messonnier of the United States’ Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The leader of the logistics effort said it will take time to understand why funding was so slow. “We developed and launched a new data system that connects hundreds of existing systems at the state and local level, to allow us to have visibility so that we can see each other across the U.S, ”Said Army General Gustave Perna.
Meanwhile, states are improvising new distribution systems and rewriting priorities for who should have access to the photos first.
Colorado said on Wednesday that it would vaccinate people 70 and older, joining Texas and Florida in an attempt to quickly immunize older residents – although federal guidelines favor health care professionals. Other cities and states are just now registering recipients, weeks after the Trump administration made it clear that it considered its work completed as soon as the vaccines were delivered to hospitals and agencies.
West Virginia has finished delivering the first of two mandatory injections to residents and employees of long-term care facilities, the first state to do so, Governor Jim Justice said on Wednesday. The state is now vaccinating prison guards and emergency workers, and will then target teachers and residents aged 80 and over, the judge said.
Julie Swann, a professor and supply chain specialist at North Carolina State University, said that prioritizing groups for initial shots is an obstacle. States are consciously weighing up competing values of protecting specific people, such as medical professionals, from immunizing the general population as quickly as possible.
“We have several competing goals and it is difficult to meet them simultaneously,” said Swann.
Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, attributed the slow deployment to public health departments affected by the pandemic, launching the inoculation campaign amid the holiday season and the special needs for handling and storing Covid- vaccines. 19.
The formula created by Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE must be stored at 94 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. That makes logistics more complicated than a simple flu shot, said Kris Ehresmann, director of infectious diseases at the Minnesota Department of Health.
“This is a new vaccine with new processes that need to be implemented and this increases the time,” said Ehresmann on Wednesday.
At least three consignments of Moderna Inc.’s vaccine was held in Texas last week because they showed signs of falling outside the required temperature range.
Federal officials said they will assess what is working and what needs to be adjusted. “Here is what I am confident about: every day, everyone gets better and I believe that acceptance will increase significantly as we move forward,” said Perna.
State struggles
President-elect Joe Biden said the government is failing to protect Americans and has promised 100 million vaccines in its first 100 days if Congress provides funds. But President Donald Trump made it clear in a tweet on Wednesday morning that he believes local officials are in charge, saying to states, “Move!”
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, during a news conference on Wednesday, said the huge undertaking was “grossly underestimated”.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine criticized suppliers for acting slowly. Only 17% of the doses distributed were administered in the state, which is home to some of the largest health systems in the country, such as the Cleveland Clinic.
Logistical problems are slowing vaccinations in hospitals, said DeWine. In long-term care facilities, few workers want vaccines. About 60% of those who were offered a vaccine refused it, said DeWine.
Ground-level logistics can be opaque across the United States. Many residents are unsure whether they will receive an injection from their doctor, at a government clinic or at a pharmacy. It is unclear how government officials will verify eligibility. Some states and cities have launched websites where residents can subscribe up until be vaccinated.
Sorry no
Health professionals are the only people who can register with the District of Columbia. New Mexico has created an online portal that allows people to apply for vaccination after entering basic information. The state promises to contact registrants when the injection is available.
Essex County, New Jersey, has a system that, in two clicks, removes people who are not in healthcare or otherwise qualified: “Based on your answer, you are not currently eligible for vaccination. Be sure to double check, as the CDC launches new phases and guidelines. “
Some states are already beginning to offer the vaccine more widely than recommended by the federal government. In Colorado, the vaccine will be available to everyone aged 70 and over, Governor Jared Polis said on Wednesday. Some areas may focus on healthcare professionals, while others may start to provide it to the elderly.
Texas this week opened vaccinations for seniors aged 65 and over and people over 16 at increased risk of serious illness. Governor Greg Abbott, in a tweet on Tuesday, urged vaccine providers to use vaccines quickly, because a “significant part” may not be used.
Wachter, the California medical professor, said the states are making this up as they go.
“These are large and complex endeavors to bring materials to millions of people, thousands of places, and they really do require federal coordination, federal programs and federal dollars behind them,” he said. “If not, you have everyone improvising and it just doesn’t work very well.”
– With the help of Michelle Fay Cortez, Stephen Joyce, Anna Edney, Margaret Newkirk, John Tozzi, Andrew Ballard, Elise Young and Alexander Ebert