The deployment of vaccines is not going as planned so far, and it has run into a shortage of resources and staffing problems caused by the rapid pandemic.
Why it’s important: The Trump administration’s goal of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of the year has been drastically reduced, and raised concerns about how long it may take until enough people are vaccinated in the U.S. for life to return to normal.
By numbers: According to a Bloomberg analysis of CDC data, 1.3% of the U.S. population has been vaccinated and 33% of the shots distributed in the states have been administered.
- Operation Warp Speed has distributed 13 million doses, about 7 million doses less than its target. About 4.3 million doses have been administered.
The state of play: State officials have given several reasons why vaccines have moved at a slower pace than expected, according to the New York Times.
- Rising coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths have overwhelmed health facilities, hampering their ability to administer vaccines.
- Many states have reserved doses of vaccines for long-term residences and care centers, which reduces distribution.
- The holidays also led to a reduction in hours and a limitation of staff in clinics.
Yes, but: NIAID Director Anthony Fauci told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that he has seen “a little light of hope” after administering 1.5 million doses in the previous 72 hours. , a marked increase in the vaccination rate.
In light of this slow deployment, some experts simply want to prioritize getting more gunshots, no matter what they are, as the pandemic gets worse.
Driving the news: The head of Operation Warp Speed, Moncef Slaoui, said yesterday that the administration is considering halving the dose of each shot of the Modern vaccine to double the number of people who could get it, for NYT.
And some experts they argue that the second shots should be delayed.
- “It’s time to change the plan; that is, we should give people a single vaccine now and postpone their second vaccine until more doses of vaccine are available,” UCSF’s Robert Wachter and Ashish Jha’s wrote yesterday. Brown, in a Washington Post publication.
The Texas Department of Health he recently sent a letter to vaccine providers urging them to vaccinate as many people as possible, as quickly as possible.
- “If, in a given situation, all available and available 1A and 1B people have been cared for, we ask that you pivot again and provide vaccine to any other available and willing person, regardless of their priority designation,” he said. write the curator.
The summary: “A vaccine that sits on a shelf for weeks, waiting for its perfect recipient, doesn’t help eliminate the pandemic,” former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb wrote in a WSJ post.