Minister of Health and Human Services Alex Azar on Wednesday urged states not to micromanage their assigned coronavirus vaccine doses, saying it was better to get the shots off as soon as possible, even if they don’t all have theirs Vaccinate healthcare workers.
“There is no reason states need to complete vaccination of all health care providers before opening vaccinations to older Americans or other high-risk populations,” Azar told reporters during a news conference.
“When they use all of the vaccine that’s allocated, ordered, distributed, shipped, and got it in the arms of the healthcare providers, that’s all great,” he added. “But if for some reason their distribution is difficult and you have vaccines in freezers, then you should definitely open them to people 70 and over.”
US officials are trying to speed up the pace of vaccinations after a slower-than-expected initial rollout. The coronavirus pandemic in the United States continues to grow. The nation has at least 219,200 new Covid-19 cases and at least 2,670 virus-related deaths each day, based on a seven-day average calculated by CNBC using data from Johns Hopkins University.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has provided states with an overview recommending that priority be given to health workers and nursing homes first. However, states may distribute the vaccine at their own discretion.
Azar said Wednesday that states that offer some “flexibility” about who gets the first doses are “the best way to get more shots in the arms, faster”. “Faster administration could save lives now, which means we cannot allow perfect to be the enemy of good,” he said. “Hope is here in the form of vaccines.”
More than 4.8 million people in the United States received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine at 9 a.m. ET on Tuesday, according to the CDC. The number is a far cry from the federal government’s goal of vaccinating 20 million Americans by the end of 2020 and 50 million Americans by the end of this month.
US officials admitted vaccine distribution was slower than hoped. Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told STAT News Tuesday that she expects the vaccine rollout to accelerate “fairly massively” in the coming weeks.
“It is the beginning of a really complicated task, but one that we are ready for,” she told STAT.
Global health experts had said distributing the vaccines to around 331 million Americans within a few months could prove to be much more complicated and chaotic than originally thought. In addition to making adequate doses, states and territories also need enough needles, syringes, and bottles to complete vaccinations.
The logistics involved in obtaining and administering the vaccine are complex and require special training. For example, Pfizer’s vaccine requires a storage temperature of minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit. Pfizer and Moderna vaccines cannot be re-frozen and must be given at room temperature and within hours, otherwise there is a risk of going bad.
Read More: The Long Road Of The Covid Vaccine: How Doses Get From The Manufacturing Plant To Your Arm
Azar also said the holidays likely played a factor in the slow adoption of vaccines. Healthcare providers knew it would be difficult to hire millions of people for vaccinations by December.
Nearly 20 million doses of vaccine have been dispensed to more than 13,000 locations across the country, General Gustave Perna, who oversees logistics for President Donald Trump’s Operation Warp Speed vaccination program, said during the same meeting.
The vaccine distribution is going “very well,” he said, adding that officials are still working to improve the process. “Our goal is to keep the drum beat constant so that states have a cadence of allocation planning and then the appropriate allocation to the right places as indicated.”
“We are constantly re-evaluating the numbers and making sure that they are distributed in the right places [and] Make sure execution is happening so other decisions can be made about assignments, “he added.
