The Nation’s top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said that the US should have done better with regards to the vaccine rollout program. Federal officials had initially promised that about 20 million vaccines would be given to Americans by the end of December 2020.
However, the authorities have managed to vaccinate only about 5 million people in the first week of January 2021. Fauci said that there are clearly no excuses in this regard, and the authorities should have worked hard to reach the targets.
Fauci Says US Should Have Done Better With Vaccine Rollout
He added that we might have to wait for the next few weeks to understand what is wrong with the mass vaccination program that it is not able to pick up the pace even after several weeks. As the vaccination program is still new and never tried before, it is understandable that there will be some delays in the initial stages.
Apart from that, the vaccination program was also started in the middle of the holiday season, and this was also another factor that led to the slow pace of the vaccine rollout program.
Health and human services secretary Alex Azar also gave the same reason for the slow rollout of vaccines across the nation. He said that the holiday season was the main contributing factor for the slow pace of the vaccine rollout program. Apart from that, the vaccines were approved during the holiday season, and it was difficult for the authorities to kick-start the distribution process in the middle of the holidays.
Even though the authorities have managed to distribute close to 15 million doses of vaccines, only about 5 million have been utilized so far. The health experts say that the hospitals and pharmacies are also getting used to the process, and the holiday season has affected the vaccine administration program at the ground level.
Azar also blamed state leaders for taking the guidelines of CDC too seriously when it comes to providing the vaccines for frontline healthcare workers. The CDC has issued guidelines to give priority to Frontline health workers to receive the first doses of the covid-19 vaccine. Even though this is a welcome move, it makes sense to provide the vaccine to other people who are more vulnerable if there are enough doses sitting in freezers. He added that people over the age of 65 should also be given priority as it will help the administration to avoid more hospitalizations in this situation.
Yet another problem for public Healthcare is the detection of new coronavirus variants in several states of the US. The B117 variant that was initially found in the UK has now spread to several states of the US. As of now, more than 50 cases of the UK virus variant have been detected in the US. The authorities are of the opinion that the new variant is more contagious than the original strain of coronavirus, and the authorities should carefully monitor the transmission of this new virus.
The good news with regards to vaccines is that close to three companies are in their final stages of clinical trials. The vaccine manufacturers are likely to approach the FDA for emergency use authorization in the next two months. The FDA will analyze the clinical trial data and provide emergency use authorization if the vaccine is found to be safe and efficient in controlling the spread of coronavirus.
The authorities feel that it will be easier for public health care to provide vaccines to a large number of people once there are multiple options available in the market. Health experts feel that the mass vaccination program is likely to reach its peak speed in the next few months.