SACRAMENTO, Calif. (Reuters) – Jerry Shapiro, a 78-year-old pharmacist from Los Angeles, tops the list of Californians now eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, but more than a month after the state began vaccinations. , he has not received one yet.
Shapiro said he spent hours calling several health care agencies and doing unsuccessful computer searches, a familiar experience for many people in the United States as President Joe Biden’s administration raced to speed up the process. vaccine in the country. .
“Why not make it easier?” asked Shapiro, who is also worried about his wife because of medical conditions that would make her particularly vulnerable to the virus. “Have him in your neighborhood. Make an appointment, get your shot and you’re done. ”
The United States is the country most affected by COVID-19, with 24.51 million cases and 409,987 deaths by early morning. More than 4,000 Americans died of the disease on Thursday for the second day in a row.
Even so, the launch of the vaccines, which former President Donald Trump’s administration allowed states to carry out without a federal plan or sufficient funding, proved to be hectic.
From California, where distribution has varied from county to county, to New York, where the largest city in the country is under-resourced, states and health care providers have struggled to purchase, store, and distribute vaccines.
“We’re running out of supplies,” New York Mayor Bill de Blasio posted on Twitter on Friday. “We need more doses IMMEDIATELY, so we can protect the most vulnerable residents in our city. We need more doses to be able to fight. “
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said only 67 percent of New York’s health care workers received a dose of vaccine and warned that if the federal government does not find a way to increase production rapidly, everyone will suffer. .
“Hospital workers are people who, if they get sick, the capacity of the hospital will collapse,” Cuomo told a news conference. “If the hospital’s capacity collapses, we need to shut down the economy.”
In New Jersey, Gov. Phil Murphy said the state’s immunization program has managed to bring 70 percent of its vaccine supply into people’s arms, but that a statewide federal program to help nursing home residents has distributed only 10 % of its offer.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, said Friday that the federal government has taken too much responsibility for distributing the vaccine to state governments.
“States were doing things that were clearly not the right direction – and that’s unfortunate,” Fauci told CNN.
Instead, he said, the administration should work with states to help them plan their launch and make sure vaccines get into people’s arms.
DISTRIBUTION CHALLENGES
Less than half of the nearly 38 million doses of vaccine shipped so far by the federal government have actually reached the arms of Americans, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said Thursday.
Some individual states are lagging behind, with only a third or 40 percent of their vaccine batches being administered since Thursday, marking the one-year anniversary of the first locally transmitted COVID-19 case documented in the United States.
A key issue is organizing the distribution of vaccines to smaller clinics and pharmacies – rather than just large medical centers and retail pharmaceutical chains.
In California, only a handful of independent pharmacies have been able to purchase vaccines for their customers – usually only in rural areas where large chain stores are not present, said Sonya Frausto, a pharmacist in the state capital of Sacramento.
Shapiro, who owns an independent pharmacy in downtown Los Angeles, said customers call daily for vaccines, but must tell them he has no supplies.
He and his wife finally made appointments to receive a vaccine on Saturday, after repeated phone calls and waiting hours led them to medical giant Kaiser Permanente. Shapiro are not Kaiser members, but the nonprofit organization still offers them photos, said Jerry Shapiro.
In Sacramento, 65-year-old restaurateur Jami Goldstene would feel much safer at her public job if she could get a vaccine. She is technically eligible because of her age, but has not yet been offered an appointment – or even found a way to do one – despite hours on the phone and on the internet.
“It’s very frustrating,” she said. “I want to end this. I want to feel safe again. ”
Reporting by Sharon Bernstein in Sacramento, California; Additional reports by Barbara Goldberg and Maria Caspani in New York, Lisa Lambert in Washington, Brad Brooks in Lubbock, Tex. And Anurag Maan in Bengaluru; Edited by Frank McGurty and Matthew Lewis