Public health experts on Thursday blamed the U.S. COVID-19 vaccine shortage, in part, on the Trump administration’s effort to cause states to greatly expand their vaccination efforts to reach the nation’s 54 million people over the age of 65 years and over.
The impetus that began more than a week ago was not accompanied by enough doses to meet demand, according to state and local officials, leading to frustration and confusion and limiting states’ ability to attack the outbreak that killed more than 400,000 Americans.
In recent days, authorities in California, Ohio, West Virginia, Florida and Hawaii have warned that their supplies are running low. New York City has begun canceling or postponing shootings or ceasing to make new appointments due to the shortage, which President Joe Biden has promised will return.
The launch of the vaccine so far has been “a major disappointment,” said Dr. Eric Topol, head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute.
The problems began with the Trump administration’s “fatal mistake” of not ordering enough vaccine, which was then removed by other countries, Topol said. Then opening the line to the elderly prepared people for disappointment because there was not enough vaccine, he said. The Trump administration also left crucial planning to states and did not provide the necessary funding.
“It doesn’t happen in fairy dust,” Topol said. “You have to put money into this.”
Last week, before Biden took over as president, the US Department of Health and Human Services suggested that frustration was the result of unrealistic expectations from states about how much vaccine was on the road.
But some public health experts said the states had not obtained reliable information on vaccine deliveries and that the amounts sent to them were unpredictable. This, in turn, made it difficult for them to plan how to inoculate people.
“It’s not necessary to build it as we go,” said Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco. “It’s a front-end supply issue, and unless we know how much vaccine is flowing on the pipe, it’s hard to help these things properly, to be equipped, to get people there, to vaccinate them and eliminate them.” .
State health secretaries have asked the Biden administration for earlier and more reliable predictions of vaccine deliveries, said Washington State Secretary of Health Dr. Umair Shah.
Dr. Marcus Plescia of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials was also among those who said the opening of vaccinations to the elderly was done too early, before the supply could catch up.
“We needed consistent federal leadership at the start of the launch,” Plescia said. “This has not happened, and now that we do not give priority to groups, there will be a certain delay for supply to catch up with demand.”
The supply will increase in the coming weeks, he said. Deliveries are sent to states every week, and the government and drug manufacturers have given assurances that large quantities are in progress.
The launch took place at a disappointing pace. The U.S. government has delivered nearly 38 million doses of vaccine to states, and about 17.5 million of them have been administered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About 2.4 million people received the two doses needed, according to the CDC number – well over the hundreds of millions that will have to be inoculated to defeat the outbreak.
Biden, in one of his first business orders, signed 10 executive orders on Thursday to combat the coronavirus pandemic, including one that expands the use of the Defense Production Act to expand vaccine production. The 1950 Korean War Act allowed the government to direct the manufacture of critical goods.
It also mandated travel masks, including in airports and airplanes, ships, trains, buses and public transportation, and ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to establish vaccination centers and the CDC to make vaccines available through pharmacies. starting next month.
Biden has promised to distribute 100 million photos in its first 100 days.
“We will move heaven and earth to vaccinate more people for free,” he said.
In New York, Mayor Bill de Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have called for more doses. Schedules until Sunday for the first dose of vaccine at 15 community vaccination centers set up by the city’s health department have been postponed to next week.
Vaccinations in New York have not stopped, but the demand for shots far exceeds the number of doses available, the mayor said.
“It’s extremely sad that we have so many people who want the vaccine and so much capacity to administer the vaccine, what’s going on?” said Blasio. “Due to lack of supply, we have to cancel appointments.”
Rosa Schneider jumped at the chance to have a vaccination meeting once she found out that educators like her were eligible in New York. A high school English teacher who lives in New York but works in New Jersey said that the day before she was vaccinated Wednesday at a city-run hospital, she received a phone call saying supplies had run out and the appointment has been canceled.
“I was worried and upset,” said the 32-year-old Schneider, but he tries to book another appointment every day. She hopes availability will improve in the coming weeks.
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Associated Press writer Jennifer Peltz contributed to the New York report.