Trump administration officials are arguing with Moderna about speeding up the coronavirus vaccination process by giving people only half the recommended dose of the company’s vaccine, a senior adviser said Sunday.
Moncel Slaoui, chief scientific adviser to Operation Warp Speed, said there was evidence that giving two half-doses to people between the ages of 18 and 55 “induces an identical immune response” to the normal dose. of 100 micrograms.
During an interview with Margaret Brennan on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” Slaoui said the strategy “means exactly achieving the goal of immunizing twice the number of people with the doses we have.”
But Slaoui has also strongly defended the idea that people only need one shot instead of the current two-dose regimen, so it’s not clear how different it would be to give people two half-doses.
Slaoui’s comments come when the U.S. vaccination program has come out the door. Vaccine distribution has been slower than expected and actual vaccinations have been even slower.
The administration did not approach its goal of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of 2020. Only about 4 million Americans received the first of two doses and just over 13 million doses have been administered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Logistical problems have affected the Trump administration’s distribution efforts, and much of the decisive “last mile” of work falls to underfunded local health departments.
States are struggling to manage the doses they already have, leading many experts to question a strategy that effectively doubles the availability of doses, but does not provide additional help to jurisdictions.
Slaoui told Brennan that he and other members of the administration assumed that when states ordered a specific number of doses, they had established distribution plans.
“Our assumption has been that there is a plan in place to vaccinate us. We are here to help with any specific requests. We will do our best, as we have done for the last eight months, to make these vaccines, in fact. , turn him into people’s arms, ”Slaoui said.
Under the current federal plan, the administration’s Operation Warp Speed only delivers half the number of doses needed to states each week. The other half remains in a warehouse, retained to ensure there is enough supply for a second dose.
Given the inefficient implementation, health experts and federal officials have been looking for ways to speed up the process.
One possibility, recently adopted in the UK, is to give a first dose to everyone, delaying a second dose by up to three months.
Slaoui said he does not see this happening in the United States and questioned the science behind the delay.
Both Moderna and Pfizer were authorized in a two-dose form, and Slaoui said trials show that the second dose gives an immune response 10 times higher than the first dose.
“We don’t have data after a dose,” Slaoui said. Delaying the vaccination schedule “without any data I think would not be responsible,” he said.