The Trump administration said it will release millions of doses of the new coronavirus vaccine previously set aside for a second dose to vaccinate Americans over the age of 65 and those with underlying illnesses.
“Every dose of vaccine that sits in storage and isn’t injected into a person’s arm could mean another life lost or another hospital bed taken,” U.S. health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday (Jan. 12) at a news conference on ” Operation Warp” said at a news conference Tuesday (Jan. 12). “Operation Warp is the Trump administration’s new crown vaccine program.
The launch of this vaccine has been widely criticized as being too slow. As of Monday, fewer than 9 million Americans had received their first dose of the vaccine out of more than 25 million doses that have been distributed, according to data provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden said on Friday that his administration will release all vaccine doses once he takes office on Jan. 20.
Azar said the change in strategy is a planned response to improved supply chain confidence four weeks after the vaccine was introduced.
“Because we now have a steady rate of production, we can now ship out all the vaccine in our stockpile and the second dose will be supplied by the vaccine produced on the production line,” he said.
The limited supply of vaccine has raised concerns that releasing the stockpiled vaccine would mean that the second dose would be delayed or rejected. Azar said that will not happen.
He said:We are 100 percent committed to ensuring that every American who gets the first dose of vaccine gets the second dose.”
Azar said part of the reason for the slow rollout of the vaccine is that some states insist that all front-line health care workers and nursing home residents who are part of the first priority be vaccinated before the next priority group is vaccinated.
CDC Director Robert Redfield said in a news release that the CDC’s guidelines “were never intended to complete phase one, then move to phase two, then move to phase three.
He added that “for the highest priority groups, we’re actually at a point where there’s more vaccine available than is required,” so it’s time to expand distribution.
“General Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of Operation Curve, said the program is distributing the vaccine to 40,000 retail pharmacies nationwide and plans to expand to 70,000.
That should expand access to vaccinations, he said. “This allows us to give the American people a place where they can comfortably go to get vaccinated.”
The federal government will also help set up mass vaccination sites if states ask for them.
Starting in two weeks, Azar said, states will get their vaccine supply based on how far along they are in getting the vaccine, not just on their vaccine-eligible population.
“If you’re not using the vaccine that you’re entitled to use, then we should rebalance the states that are using that vaccine.”
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