People are waiting in line on New Year’s Eve to receive COVID-19 vaccination in a place for the elderly in an unoccupied store in the Oviedo shopping center. Gov. Ron DeSantis has ordered Florida residents over the age of 65 to be included in the first group to receive coronavirus vaccinations, contrary to federal CDC recommendations.
Paul Hennessy | LightRocket | Getty Images
The head of the Food and Drug Administration said on Friday that he urges states to start vaccinating lower-priority groups against Covid-19, while US officials are trying to speed up the pace after a slower-than-expected initial launch.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn did not advise opening vaccinations to all Americans, telling reporters that states should fire “meaningful” groups, such as the elderly, people with pre-existing conditions, police, firefighters, and others. essential workers.
“I heard in the press that some people said, ‘OK, I’m waiting to vaccinate all my health workers. We have about 35% of the vaccine. “I think it’s reasonable to extend this to other groups,” Hahn said Friday morning during an event hosted by the Health Policy Alliance. I can give the vaccine. “
Hahn stressed that the distribution of vaccines has yet to be driven by “data and science”, adding that states ultimately know what is best for their communities.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has provided states with a draft that recommends the priority of health care workers and nursing homes, but states can distribute the vaccine as they see fit. But in recent days, US health officials have expressed concern that national guidelines could slow the pace of vaccinations as states limit access to fire for some people.
More than 21.4 million doses of the vaccine have been distributed in the United States since Thursday, but just over 5.9 million doses have been administered, according to data compiled by the CDC. The number is far from the federal government’s goal of inoculating 20 million Americans by the end of 2020 and 50 million Americans by the end of this month.
Earlier this week, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar advised states not to “manage” the vaccine doses, saying it was best to put out the fire as soon as possible.
“There is no reason for states to end vaccination of all health care providers before opening vaccinations for older Americans or other particularly vulnerable populations,” Azar told reporters during a news briefing on Wednesday. .
“If they use all the vaccine that is allocated, ordered, distributed, shipped and received in the arms of health care providers, each of them is wonderful,” he added. “But if, for some reason, their distribution is being fought and the vaccine is in the freezers, then you have to open it to everyone 70 years and older.
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. The logistics for obtaining and administering the vaccine are complex, requiring special training. The Pfizer vaccine, for example, requires a storage temperature of minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit.
In a press release on Thursday, state health officials said they were working to administer the vaccine as soon as possible, but blamed insufficient funding and a lack of communication from the federal government for the slowdown.
They said they expected the vaccination rate to increase once the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was licensed. The J&J vaccine requires only one shot, while the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses at a distance of about three to four weeks.
US officials acknowledged that the vaccine was slower than expected. Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told STAT News on Tuesday that he expects the vaccine’s launch to accelerate “quite massively” in the coming weeks.
“These are the early stages of a really complicated task, but a task we are preparing,” she told STAT.