UPS package handlers Jesirae Elzey and Demeatres Ralston are unloading COVID-19 Moderna vaccine boxes when they arrive at UPS Worldport, Louisville, Kentucky, December 20, 2020.
Michael Clevenger | Swimming pool | Reuters
Distribution of the coronavirus vaccine has been slower than US officials had hoped, with the number of immunizations remaining well below the US government’s target of 20 million by the end of the year, federal health officials said on Wednesday.
Just over one million people in the United States have received the first dose of coronavirus vaccine since Wednesday morning, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. It is about 19 million shy doses of previous projections for December and leaves public officials less than two weeks – about 8 days – to try to close this gap.
“Exactly how fast the rate of immunization, gunfire, is rising faster than I thought it would be,” President Donald Trump’s coronavirus vaccine tsar, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, told reporters at a news conference Wednesday afternoon. . “And, as I told you earlier, we are here to help states accelerate properly,” he said, adding that the 20 million vaccination target is unlikely to be reached.
US officials say they are still working on some issues in the distribution system after some dose deliveries were directed to the wrong destinations, and others came out on the wrong day.
Army General Gustave Perna, who oversees logistics for Operation Warp Speed, said the US government has done a “good job so far” by distributing millions of doses of Povizer and Moderna Covid vaccine to major states, territories and cities across the country. . He added, however, that US officials were still “learning”, with the distribution process becoming “better” and “stronger” every day.
“We had a handful of packages that we tried to deliver, which were not destined for the right place, but we captured them before they were left and redirected them to the right place,” Perna told reporters during a briefing release Wednesday afternoon. . “And we had a few … transports that didn’t come out on the right day.”
This is not the first hiccup since the distribution began. Perna said last week that several thousand doses of Pfizer vaccine traveling to California and Alabama had to be quarantined and returned to the company after the bottles had somehow become too cold. It is not clear what caused the drop in temperature, but Pfizer said in a statement that it was able to intercept shipments and “trigger the supply without problems to be delivered to those customers.”
World health experts say the distribution of vaccines to about 331 million Americans in a few months could prove to be much more complicated and chaotic than originally thought. In addition to making enough doses, states and territories also need enough needles, syringes and bottles to vaccinate people. People should also be trained on how to store and administer vaccines. (The Pfizer vaccine requires a storage temperature of minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit.)
Despite the wrong steps, CDC Director Robert Redfield on Wednesday praised the US benchmark of one million vaccinations, calling it an “achievement,” because vaccine protection will help front-line health workers as they continue to treat patients. ill.
“As we celebrate this historic milestone, we also recognize the challenging path ahead,” he said in a statement. “There is currently a limited amount of COVID-19 vaccine in the US, but supply will increase in the coming weeks and months. The goal is for everyone to be easily vaccinated against COVID-19 as soon as large enough. Are available.”
Perna said on Wednesday that it expects the distribution of vaccines to improve, with more than 7,800 deliveries expected to be completed by the end of Thursday. The United States plans to deliver 2.67 million doses of Pfizer vaccine and 2 million doses of Moderna vaccine to states next week, Perna said. The government distributed 2 million doses of Pfizer vaccine and 5.9 million doses of Moderna vaccine this week. A total of 15.5 million vaccines have been allocated, he said.