Leaders of Operation Warp Speed waited more than two months to approve a Covid-19 vaccine distribution and administration plan proposed by U.S. health officials, administration officials said, leaving states with little time. to implement a mass vaccination campaign amid a wave of coronavirus.
State and local officials had been demanding help for months to prepare for the largest immunization program in U.S. history when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released a game book in September to guide them.
The CDC had wanted to start helping states plan in June how to vaccinate people. But Operation Warp Speed officials rejected the agency’s vaccine distribution plan. They adopted a similar plan in August only after exploring other options, and then kept publishing the CDC game book for states for two weeks to get additional permission and publish it with another document, they said. tell officials.
Operation Warp Speed was supposed to be a high mark on the Trump administration’s coronavirus response, but it stumbled on the finish line due to problems with federal planning and forecasting. Now, the public-private partnership is striving to speed up vaccinations, adjusting eligibility guidelines as states compete to increase their ability to administer doses on a large scale.
“They didn’t plan the last inch of the last mile, the part that matters most: how you’re going to vaccinate a lot of people quickly,” Dr. Bruce Gellin, former Vaccine Health and Human Services official and president of global vaccination at the Sabin Vaccine Institute.