Warp Speed leaders have waited more than two months to approve a plan to distribute and administer Covid-19 vaccines proposed by U.S. health officials, administration officials said, leaving states with little time to implement a campaign. mass vaccination against the background of a wave of coronavirus.
Local and state officials had been asking for help for months to prepare for the largest immunization program in U.S. history, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published a handbook in September to guide them.
The CDC wanted to start helping states plan in June how to vaccinate people. But Operation Warp Speed officials rejected the vaccine agency’s plan. They adopted a similar plan in August only after exploring other options – and then held the release of the CDC Handbook for States for two weeks for further approval and to publish it with another document, officials said.
Operation Warp Speed was supposed to be a high mark of the Trump administration’s coronavirus response, but it stumbled on the finish line due to federal planning and forecasting issues. Now, the public-private partnership is struggling to speed up vaccinations by adjusting eligibility guidelines, while states are struggling to increase their ability to administer doses on a large scale.
“They didn’t plan for the last inch of the last mile, the part that matters most – how you’re actually going to vaccinate a lot of people fast,” said Dr. Bruce Gellin, a former vaccine officer for health and human services and president of global immunization. at the Sabin Vaccine Institute.