Fauci says severe winter storms delayed distribution of 6 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine

Dr. Anthony Fauci has warned that Americans could wear masks in 2022 as he said severe winter storms experienced across the country this week delayed the distribution of six million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The White House chief medical officer told NBC on Sunday: “The figure was 6 million doses.

But the nation’s top infectious disease expert said Sunday it was just a “temporary setback,” adding, “We can recover pretty well. We’ve come out with two million, and we project that by the middle of the week we’ll have put ourselves in the day ‘.

Bad weather in the south and northeast earlier this week sparked vaccine deliveries and forced the cancellation of countless shots across the country. The CDC admitted “widespread delays in shipments and deliveries of Covid-19 vaccines.”

In a wide strip of the nation, including Texas, Georgia, and Alabama, the snowy, slippery weather caused vaccination sites to close or hold the necessary shipments, with waiting delays for days.

President Joe Biden is trying to speed up the campaign to vaccinate most American adults, as local governments are demanding more doses to prevent the highly contagious disease that has caused nearly 500,000 lives in the United States.

Asked if Americans should expect them to still wear masks next year, Fauci told CNN, “I think it’s possible,” he added, adding that it depended on the level of the virus in the communities and possible virus variants.

“Obviously, I think we will have a degree of normalcy beyond the terrible burden we have all experienced over the last year,” Fauci said.

He told Fox News that the United States will have 600 million doses of coronavirus vaccine in July. “In July we will have enough, we will have the 600 million doses we contracted,” he added.

The U.S. has administered 57 million doses of COVID shot; 41 million people have had the first vaccine, 16 million are completely vaccinated.

The abrupt cessation of the vaccine occurs as Saturday’s daily figures show the number of people hospitalized with the coronavirus continues to decline, with 58,000 registered. It is the lowest number in more than three and a half months.

There were 2,074 deaths daily in the last 24 hours. Levels are now similar to those seen before the virus rose last spring and summer.

Although daily infection rates are drastically declining, thousands of Americans still die every day from the virus and less than 15% of the American population has been vaccinated against it.

This icy explosion in much of the United States this week injected more confusion and frustration into the country’s COVID-19 vaccination process.

Texas, Health officials said more than 100,000 first doses and 300,000 second doses that were supposed to be delivered this week were still waiting to be sent to the state.

Missed doses are expected to arrive during the first half of next week.

In Houston, some vaccination sites reopened later this week. A new FEMA mass vaccination site in the city’s NRG park promises to vaccinate 42,000 people a week.

New York City was approaching a dramatic slowdown in vaccine launches on Saturday with only 1,000 doses on hand after snowstorms delayed vaccine shipments.

“Delayed shipments have stopped all of our vaccination efforts. As of this morning, less than 1,000 first-hand doses remain in New York City.” Avery Cohen, a spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio, wrote on Twitter.

This has led local officials to implore vaccination sites to extend their hours of operations and meet in additional appointments.

When it comes to the vaccination effort on Friday, New York Mayor Bill De Blasio explained that New York City had to delay scheduling up to 35,000 appointments for the first dose of people in New York City. due to scarcity.

Those who have not canceled appointments over the weekend have still been able to receive their shots.

New York State is also scheduling appointments for new mass vaccination sites that opened Wednesday in Brooklyn and Queens in collaboration with FEMA according to the New York Times.

State officials said they had received 40 percent of the vaccine allocation for the week and expected the rest to be distributed on Sunday.

The main reason for the slowdown came after bad weather stopped two key vaccine delivery centers: the FedEx center in Memphis and a similar UPS-managed site in Louisville, Kentucky, where the batches pass.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency noted that another 2,000 vaccination sites have been in areas that have suffered power outages.

A public health expert said the delays were unacceptable.

“Having vaccination centers on snowy days will only mean backing things up more than they already are,” said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a senior academic at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “The virus doesn’t take snowy days.”

Adalja said people in charge of vaccination efforts need to find ways to be more weather-resistant, “just as postmen can deliver mail by sleet or snow.” He suggested that clinics use better contingency plans. The goal, he said, should be “a continuous assembly line of vaccines that pass into people’s arms.”

Jo Dohogne, of Bartlett, Tennessee, said he had scheduled two appointments this week to receive his second dose of Modern vaccine, but both were canceled due to bad weather.

Dohogne, 75, who has multiple sclerosis, said she felt abandoned when the six-week mark of her second dose approached after her first vaccination on Jan. 14.

“I’m stressed … it’s like I’ve been occupying my whole life,” Dohogne said.

In Washington, White House COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients said that in places where vaccination sites have been closed, such as Texas, the government encourages places to increase their hours once they are open.

“We want to make sure that because we’ve wasted time in some states so that people can needles in their arms, that our partners do everything they can to reclaim that lost ground,” he said.

In southern Nevada, officials reported that winter storms had delayed the shipment of Modern vaccines scheduled to be administered as a second dose this week.

The United States vaccinates an average of 1.7 million Americans a day against COVID-19, up from less than a million a month ago. New White House data shows a steady increase in the rate of vaccinations during President Joe Biden’s first month in office.

After the first death of Covid-19 in the United States was announced in February 2020, it took about three months to exceed 100,000, during a first wave that particularly affected New York.

But as the outbreak grew in the United States, the death toll rose, with a toll rising from 400,000 in just over a month amid a spike driven in part by holiday meetings.

‘I’ts horrible. It is historic. We haven’t seen anything like this in over 1918 since the 1918 flu pandemic, “Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to U.S. President Joe Biden, told the Meet the Press program. NBC network.

“It’s an awesome thing when you look at the numbers, almost amazing, but it’s true,” he added, as the toll on Johns Hopkins University’s monitoring website was 497,600.