Speed up vaccine rollout

An administration that never could get ahead of the curve when it came to fighting the pandemic is proving once more that competence matters, this time when it comes to delivering vaccinations against COVID-19.

By the end of the year, the Trump administration had promised 20 million Americans would receive the vaccine to protect against the coronavirus. Instead, we are at roughly 3 million people vaccinated. That’s not a number that will provide herd immunity and protect vulnerable people anytime soon.

Showing once more that he doesn’t understand how the federal government can set policy and lead the way, President Donald Trump tweeted Wednesday: “The Federal Government has distributed the vaccine to the states. Now it is up to the states to administer the vaccine. Get moving!”

Of course, states will be administering the vaccine. But a federal government up to the challenge of fighting a pandemic would understand its role is supporting states’ efforts.

Washington Post columnist Leana S. Wen has pointed out that if the current rate continues, it would take about 10 years to reach 80 percent of Americans with the two doses of the shot.

The logistics are complicated, but the officials at Operation Warp Speed — the group fast-tracking the vaccine for Trump — have had months to plan how the vaccines would be shipped and administered. Already, there is danger that vaccines will expire before they can be placed in people’s arms. That’s incompetence in action.

They knew there would be vaccine skepticism and have done little to begin a public awareness campaign to persuade people that taking the vaccine is the right thing to do. They have not engaged local officials to ensure plans were ready and vaccines could be administered efficiently. And remember, public health workers, nurses, doctors and hospitals all are in the midst of battling a COVID-19 surge.

They need support, not distance. And they need a federal government that listens.

State public health officials told the federal government they needed money to set up vaccine delivery. They were ignored, although $9 billion in aid is in the latest stimulus bill.

In New Mexico, we have received almost 50,000 doses of the vaccine, with about 80 percent of those administered. The state also has an online system so individuals can sign up to be immunized.

Dr. Tracie Collins, secretary-designate for the Department of Health, told the public last week the state is still determining the order in which people will receive the vaccine. First were health care workers, nursing homes employees and residents, and first responders, with vaccines going next to the elderly and people with serious health issues.

The teaching profession should be at the top of the list when it comes to vaccinating essential workers. Schools need to open, and for that to happen, teachers must be protected.

When President-elect Joe Biden takes office later this month, he will have to take this shaky structure and give it direction. He is promising 100 million shots in 100 days, about five or six times the current pace. That’s no easy task.

On day one, Biden’s health appointees will be charged with helping states get into true warp speed. We need more people to deliver the vaccines; remember, nurses already are busy dealing with COVID-19 right now. We need vaccination sites and plans to decide who gets the shots and when.

In essence, what’s happened so far is a snapshot of what occurred throughout the pandemic. The Trump administration offered tweets, not help, and the U.S. dealt with the single biggest public health crisis in history 50 different ways.

And so, in Florida, vaccines are being distributed on a first-come, first-serve basis, with people being told to show up with water, food and medicine while they wait. In Kentucky, a nursing home ordered too many vaccines, resulting in pharmacists handing the shots out to lucky people on the spot.

This is no way to manage a disaster. Operation Warp Speed worked quickly to develop a vaccine — it’s a Trump administration triumph. But without the vaccines getting to people, what people will remember is not the development of the vaccine but a failure to deliver. To prevent deaths, restore the economy and bring back a sense of normalcy to the lives of Americans, vaccinations are essential.

The nation has only 17 more days to endure this ineptitude. Unfortunately, in a pandemic, that’s a lifetime. A lot of lifetimes.