The United States must be doing a better job with the launch of the Covid-19 vaccine, Deputy Health Admiral Brett Giroir said Wednesday.
“Sure, we need to do a better job, but all vaccination programs start a little slow,” Giroir told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
He said he expects distribution to increase soon and the United States is on track to distribute 20 million doses of vaccine by the first week of January.
“I know we will distribute about 30 million more in January and potentially up to 50 million more in February,” he said.
As pharmacies begin to play a more important role in vaccine administration, Giroir said he expects the pace to accelerate.
“We have a federal contract with 40,000 pharmacies (that is, 60% of all U.S. pharmacies) to provide vaccines,” Giroir said. “The scale will increase very quickly as things move forward and evolve.”
“Vaccines on the shelf are not good,” he added. “They need to put themselves in people’s arms and we don’t leave any stone to do so.”
Some background: Operation Warp Speed is on track to fall well below the 20 million vaccines it predicted would be administered by the end of December.
About 2.6 million doses of vaccine have been administered in the United States, according to data provided to CNN by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.