The United States should extend the eligibility of the coronavirus vaccine to ensure that more Americans will receive gunshots in the coming weeks, Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Monday.
“Right now, every shot in one arm is a victory,” Gottlieb told Squawk Box.
The US has far exceeded its end-of-2020 target of vaccinating 20 million people against Covid-19. While about 13.1 million doses have been delivered to states since January 2, only about 4.23 million Americans have actually received the initial dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, the only ones authorized in the US for emergency use, both require two doses a few weeks apart.
Gottlieb, a former Commissioner for Food and Drug Administration and a current board member of Pfizer, said the federal government should stockpile fewer doses, instead of pursuing the current policy of withholding about half of the available supply. to guarantee people that they will receive the second blow.
Due to the intensity of the current Covid-19 outbreak, some hospital systems are strained and thousands of Americans die from the disease each week, Gottlieb said the priority should be to launch as many initial doses as possible. “We know that getting the vaccines in our arms can be a partial stop against the continued spread,” he added.
“I think people should get the second dose. He should receive the second dose largely on time, but we can now push more doses and use the future supply that will come on the market in January to deliver some of those second doses, “he said. , referring to vaccine manufacturers’ plans to continuously increase supply in 2021.
“You have to store something if you want to make sure there’s a smooth transition to the second dose, but giving up 50% of all doses, I think, denies more people access to a vaccine,” said Gottlieb, who led the FDA. from 2017 to 2019 in the Trump administration.
At the same time, he acknowledged that a potential reason why fewer Americans have been vaccinated than expected is that there is a reluctance to receive the shot among groups of people who have been given priority, such as caregivers. long term. For example, Ohio Republican Gov. Mike DeWine said last week that about 60 percent of state asylum workers refused to be vaccinated.
In addition to those living and working in long-term care facilities, health workers were also given priority in the initial launch. Last month, a CDC advisory committee recommended that “key frontline workers” and people aged 75 and over be next in line as the offer becomes more available.
However, states have the ability to define who is eligible to receive the vaccine, and some such as Texas and Florida have already announced that they will change the CDC guidelines for the second group. In Texas, for example, priority will be given to people aged 65 and over, as well as those with certain underlying medical conditions.
Gottlieb said he believes states should be willing to expand eligibility, including making the vaccine available at retail pharmacies, because it is important for high-risk Americans to have access during what he called “the worst part.” of this epidemic right now. “
“If we have a group of Americans who we know want the vaccine very badly and would get it quickly and also happen to be at the highest risk of having a bad Covid result – and I’m thinking especially of people “I would just give it to them,” Gottlieb said.
“I would make it available to them in general, as much as possible, while focusing on these priority groups. I’m not saying you ignore this mission,” he said. “This is a very important public health mission, but we should not spend three weeks trying to push vaccines into our arms, where you have a certain reluctance when we know that these vaccines are on the shelf and building on the shelf.”
Disclosure: Scott Gottlieb is a CNBC contributor and a board member of Pfizer, a genetic testing start-up Tempus and the biotechnology company Illumina. He is also co-chair of the “Healthy Sail Panel” of Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings and Royal Caribbean.