Washington – The former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Dr. Scott Gottlieb, on Sunday, suggested that the Biden administration make “tailor-made” efforts to ensure that coronavirus vaccines were entering the arms of Americans in underserved communities.
“I would be taking federal and state resources and creating more tailored solutions that can be used in some hard-to-reach environments, in some of the underserved communities, whether you can move mobile vans to those communities or want to work. through community groups, local providers, church groups, community health centers to try to vaccinate the hardest-to-reach populations, ”Gottlieb said in an interview with“ Face the Nation ”. “It’s a very difficult effort. It’s expensive. It’s a tailor-made effort.”
Gottlieb, who headed the FDA for nearly two years under former President Donald Trump, said the new administration is “taking a total approach” to vaccine distribution, from supporting vaccination sites to sending doses of vaccine directly at retail pharmacies. But he warned not to devote too much federal resources to mass vaccination sites, as Americans who go there to receive their COVID-19 shots can probably be served by Walmart, Rite Aid, CVS and Walgreens pharmacies.
“It would be directing federal resources toward that kind of mission and letting Walmart work with easy demand and Rite Aid,” he said of reaching underserved communities.
While the Biden administration has taken steps to speed up the pace of vaccine administration, Gottlieb and other public health experts have highlighted new variants of the coronavirus first identified in the UK, South Africa and Brazil. which amplify the need for Americans to be vaccinated as quickly as possible. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are approximately 1,000 reported cases of the UK strain, B.1.1.7, in 39 states and more than a dozen cases of the South African variant, B. 1,351, in at least five states.
The emergence of new variants has caused vaccine manufacturers such as Pfizer and Moderna to begin developing new booster vaccines to address them. Gottlieb said drug manufacturers should decide when they will start switching their manufacturing to boosters in July and August.
“You don’t want to throw all the eggs in the basket, but you do want to create a supply that will allow you to get to the fall if you need these vaccines,” he said. “So I think it’s about time you make that decision. The time to start the manufacturing process and finish the finished vaccine is about two months. So if you start manufacturing in July, you’ll start eliminating the vaccine. in time for fall “.
While U.S. drug manufacturers are working on shots that protect against new coronavirus strains, UK officials have decided to continue administering a vaccine developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca, although it has been shown not to be so effective judgments against the South African variant.
Gottlieb said he understands the decision to continue using the Oxford / AstraZeneca feature as it is cheap, accessible and can be stored more easily. But he suggested there should be a “plan B” of another feature to send to regions where the South African variant becomes the dominant strain.
“If you introduce a vaccine in those markets that we know does not cover variant B.1.351 very well, the South African variant, if you run the risk of selecting that variant in those markets,” he said. dit. “Therefore, you need a plan B on what vaccine you will deploy to these regions if, in fact, B.1.351 becomes prevalent in these regions after you are vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.”