Last week, amid a rocky and chaotic launch of the country’s coronavirus vaccination campaign, the Trump administration issued new guidelines, greatly expanding the vaccine’s eligibility for people 65 and older.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said there is no reason for states to complete vaccination for all health care providers before opening vaccination to older Americans and other vulnerable populations, comparing the situation to boarding a plane at the gate of an airport.
“You don’t wait until literally everyone in one group is approached before moving on to the next,” said Azar of his efforts to eliminate a worrying bottleneck that slowed vaccination efforts, even as more people contracted COVID-19.
But by expanding eligibility, as vaccine supplies are still far short of demand, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has created a new problem.
Everyone now wants to board the plane at the same time.
The result has been anger and frustration in NJ and elsewhere, as hundreds of thousands of people try to gain access to a still limited number of vaccines in a state that officials say is receiving only about 100,000 doses a week.
In fact, with the expansion of eligibility, consultations available to receive the vaccine in New Jersey are rare or nonexistent.
“The supply of the vaccine is still extremely limited and will remain for some time,” said Judith Persichilli, New Jersey health commissioner.
A health expert who supported the CDC’s call to expand eligibility, however, warned of an even greater impending problem. Will there be enough trained medical personnel available to administer the vaccine as more supplies become available?
“What is starting to emerge now is an understanding that there are not enough front-line personnel in terms of supporting the vaccination process to be able to put all the injections in people’s arms,” said Perry N. Halkitis, dean from the Rutgers School of Public Health.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar, speaking about expanding the vaccine’s eligibility at a news conference last Tuesday.AP
New Jersey, like most other states, initially targeted health workers and nursing homes for their meager supply of vaccine. But he soon saw his vaccination numbers well below many other states.
As of Friday, New Jersey ranked 29 out of 50 states in vaccinations administered by 100,000 people, according to the latest CDC data.
Similar problems were seen in New York, which was criticized after it was reported that the state had to discard doses of the vaccine because there were not enough people advancing in the groups at highest risk and priority to be inoculated.
New Jersey health officials last week quickly adopted the new CDC guidelines, expanding the vaccine’s eligibility to everyone over 65. In addition, the state said that those aged 16 to 64 with specific medical conditions will also be allowed to apply for the vaccine and included 2 million smokers, who are at risk for health if they contract the virus.
Despite the long waiting time for nominations created by the expansion of eligibility, Halkitis said state leaders should have rethought the phased approach once it became clear that vaccinations were lower than expected in the first eligible group.
He noted that only a third of the doses that were available to states across the country were actually used, in part because several health professionals chose not to be vaccinated.
Still, he said the lack of a vaccine at hand is not his biggest concern.
“The problem we have has less to do with the vaccine stock than with the person’s own ability to give it,” he said, referring to the need for health professionals who can administer the vaccines.
In a speech on Friday, President-elect Joe Biden called the implantation of the vaccine in the United States “a terrible failure” and announced plans to vaccinate more people, create more places to be vaccinated and mobilize more medical staff to get the shots in people’s arms, increase the supply and “take it out as soon as possible”.
Biden said he is looking to increase vaccine availability in pharmacies, create mobile clinics to bring vaccines to underserved communities, while encouraging all states to expand vaccine eligibility for people 65 and older.
In the meantime, New Jersey officials said the state will continue to review the recommendations of the CDC’s Immunization Practices Advisory Committee, a group of medical and public health experts who develop recommendations on the use of vaccines.
“We can change groups as we go and prepare for more vaccines,” said Persichilli.
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Ted Sherman can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @TedShermanSL.