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u.s. news Diaranson 13 Januari 2021

US shifts to speed COVID shots as cases and deaths rise

(AP) — Barely a month into a green light to provide more places accelerate supplies was prudent. Azar said the pace of vaccinations has
mass vaccination campaign to where people can get shots. Those lo- picked up, hitting 700,000 a day re-
stop the COVID-19 pandemic, cations can include tens of thousands On Tuesday, he also sought to deflect cently and on track to reach 1 million
the Trump administration un- of pharmacies, federally supported blame to the states for the slow up- daily. But the American Hospital As-
expectedly shifted gears Tuesday community health centers that serve take of vaccines. Azar said some states sociation estimates 1.8 million vacci-
to speed the delivery of shots. low-income communities, and mass are being “overly prescriptive and try- nations a day are needed, seven days a
The move came after widespread vaccination sites already being set up ing to micromanage every single dose week, to achieve widespread immu-
concern over a slow start even in some states. of vaccine,” leading to bottlenecks. nity by the middle of this year. Biden
as coronavirus cases and deaths has set a goal of 100 million shots ad-
reach new highs. As of Monday morning, the govern- Azar also criticized what he called ministered in his first 100 days.
ment had distributed about 25.5 mil- “the hospitalization of vaccine distri-
Health and Human Services Secre- lion doses to states, U.S. territories bution,” saying “we have too much “We’re in a race against this virus and
tary Alex Azar announced a series of and major cities. But only about 9 vaccine sitting in freezers in hospi- quite frankly, we’re behind,” U.S.
major changes to increase supply of million people had received their first tals.” Surgeon General Jerome Adams told
vaccines and expand the age groups shot, according to the Centers for “Fox & Friends.” Public health advo-
eligible as well as locations where Disease Control and Prevention's on- State and local officials are sure to cates agree.
people can get shots. line tracker. That means only about point out that it was the federal gov- “Bottom line is we need to get the
35% of the available vaccines had ernment that recommended putting most vaccine in the most arms as
One change will have some teeth to been administered. health care workers at the front of the quickly as we can and we need to
it. Azar said going forward the fed- vaccination line. make sure people get the second
eral government will base each state's Initially, the shots were going to dose — those are not necessarily at
allocation of vaccines partly on how health care workers and nursing The Trump administration directed a odds with each other,” said Chris-
successful states have been in admin- home residents. Those 75 and older crash effort to develop, manufacture sie Juliano, of the Big Cities Health
istering those already provided. were next in line. But problems arose and deliver vaccines, hoping to avoid Coalition, which represents leaders
even in vaccinating that limited pool a repeat of earlier debacles with coro- of large metropolitan health depart-
“If you are not using vaccines that of people. Some hospital and nurs- navirus testing. Dubbed “Operation ments. “The public health preven-
you have the right to, then we should ing home workers have been hesitant Warp Speed,” it has produced two tion measures we are asking people to
be rebalancing to states that are us- to get the vaccine. Scheduling issues highly effective vaccines, with more do — stay home, mask up, social dis-
ing that vaccine," Azar said at news created delays in getting shots to on the way. tance — aren’t getting us to where we
conference. That won't happen over- nursing homes. need to be. We need to be bold and
night, not until officials try to sort Each state has its own plan for who we need to respond with renewed ur-
out whether lags in reporting could Some states, including Arizona, have should be vaccinated, based on CDC gency.”
be the reason for what appears to be or are planning to open up mass vac- recommendations that gave first pri-
subpar performance. cination centers, aiming to inoculate ority to health care workers and nurs- Biden is expected to give a speech
thousands of people a day in a single ing home residents. Some critics say Thursday outlining his plan to speed
Azar also said the government will location. In Florida, Gov. Ron De- the administration's planning should vaccines to more people in the first
stop holding back the required sec- Santis opened up vaccinations to have extended into helping states part of his administration. His tran-
ond doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech people 65 and older. In other states, administer the shots after they were sition team has vowed to release as
and Moderna vaccines, practically local health authorities have started delivered. Congress has recently ap- many vaccine doses as possible, rath-
doubling supply. Both those shots re- asking residents 65 and older to reg- proved more than $8 billion for that. er than continuing what had been the
quire two doses to achieve optimum ister, in anticipation the vaccination Trump administration policy of hold-
protection. campaign would be expanded. The slow pace of the vaccine rollout ing back millions of doses to ensure
has frustrated many Americans at there would be enough supply to al-
Additionally, Washington is urging Although Azar said the shift in strat- a time when the coronavirus death low those getting the first shot to get
states to immediately start vaccinat- egy was a natural evolution of the toll has continued to rise. More than a second one.
ing other groups lower down the pri- Trump administration's efforts, as re- 376,000 people in the U.S. have died, Azar said they'll brief the Biden tran-
ority scale, including people age 65 cently as Friday he had raised ques- according to the Johns Hopkins da- sition team on the changes, but didn't
and older and younger people with tions about whether Biden's call to tabase. seek their blessing.
certain health problems.

The move to increase the supply of
vaccines better aligns the outgoing
administration with the new Biden-
Harris team. On Friday, President-
elect Joe Biden said he will rapidly
release most available vaccine doses
to protect more people. He said he
supported immediately releasing
vaccines that health authorities were
holding back out of caution, to guar-
antee they would be available for peo-
ple needing their second dose.

“This next phase reflects the urgency
of the situation,” said Azar. “Every
vaccine dose sitting in a warehouse
rather than going into an arm could
mean one more death that could have
been avoided."

Initially the government had been
holding back second doses as a safety
precaution against potential shortfalls
in production. Now, officials say they
are confident the needed supply will
be there. And people needing a sec-
ond dose will have priority.
Simultaneously, Azar gave states the