Doc slams ‘slow’ vax rollout
While the first Massachusetts Soldiers’ Home veteran residents received the coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday and many in long-term care facilities get the shot this week, a leading public health expert is sounding the alarm on the “slow” vaccine rollout and the need for more federal help.
Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, said he’s “incredibly frustrated” by what he calls a slow vaccine rollout after it’s been known for months that millions of doses would be coming soon.
The feds are not doing enough to help already-strained states with administering vaccine doses to their residents, Jha wrote in a viral Twitter thread.
“There appears to be no investment or plan in the last mile,” he tweeted. “No effort from Feds to help states launch a real vaccination infrastructure. Did the Feds not know vaccines were coming? Shouldn’t planning around vaccination sites, etc not have happened in October or November?”
The feds have been “setting states up to fail,” Jha added.
But he noted that Congress recently passed money for vaccine distribution.
“States now building infrastructure,” Jha tweeted. “Should have been built by Feds months ago. After a slow ramp up, it’ll get better.”
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services pushed back at Jha, saying he was ignoring the CDC giving $340 million to states and other jurisdictions for COVID-19 vaccine preparedness.
“Operation Warp Speed remains on track to have approximately 40 million doses of vaccine and allocate 20 million doses for first vaccinations by the end of December 2020, with distribution of the 20 million first doses spanning into the first week of January as states place orders for them,” Michael Pratt of Operation Warp Speed said in a statement.
“These doses are being distributed at states’ direction to the American people as quickly as they are available and releasable, and the rapid availability and distribution of so many doses — with 20 million first doses allocated for distribution just 18 days after the first vaccine was granted emergency use authorization — is a testament to the success of Operation Warp Speed,” he added.
As of Monday, 11.4 million vaccine doses have been distributed and 2.1 million people have received the first dose, per the CDC tracker. There’s a lag time between shots going into arms and the data being reported, the spokesman said.
Meanwhile on Tuesday in Massachusetts, the first Soldiers’ Home veteran residents received the vaccine in Holyoke and Chelsea, both facilities that have been devastated by the virus.
Robert Aucoin, 78, a U.S. Air Force vet and resident at the Holyoke facility, received the first vaccine there.
“My wish is that everyone in the world can get the vaccine,” Aucoin said.
Dominic Pitella, 94, a U.S. Army Air Corps vet and resident at the Chelsea facility, got the first vaccine there.
Pitella said, “I’m hopeful this will help everybody.”