HHS: States should move faster on shots
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar on Wednesday urged governors to get COVID-19 vaccines into as many people as possible as quickly as possible, and not let “perfection be the enemy of the good.”
The initial focus has been on vaccinating health care workers and nursing home residents. But with as much as 70% of distributed vaccines still sitting on pharmacy shelves, Azar said, the focus should shift to vaccinating more people rather than on precisely who is getting the shots.
He praised Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis for allowing senior citizens to have access to the shots alongside health care workers.
“We would much rather see states move as quickly as possible and use every possible avenue to meet demand – as places like Florida are trying to do – then to leave the vaccines sitting in freezers,” Azar said. “It would be much better to move quickly and end up vaccinating some lower priority people than to let vaccine sit around while states try to micromanage this problem. Faster administration could save lives right now.”
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h Georgia became the fifth state to report a case of the more contagious virus strain first identified in the United Kingdom, joining Colorado, California, Florida and New York. The state’s Department of Health said the case was found in an 18-year-old man with no travel history. He is isolating at home.
h The European Union’s medicines agency gave the green light Wednesday to Moderna’s vaccine, clearing the way for a final approval from the EU’s executive commission. The EU has ordered 80 million doses of the Moderna vaccine with an option for a further 80 million.
h China blocked a visit from experts with the World Health Organization who were supposed to start investigating the origins of COVID-19 in Wuhan. WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a media briefing in Geneva on Tuesday he was “very disappointed with this news.”
h Montana Gov.-elect Greg Gianforte on Tuesday announced plans to remove the statewide mask mandate after more vulnerable populations are vaccinated and businesses operate under new COVID-19 directives. Gianforte said he will continue to wear a mask and encourage people to do the same.
h Los Angeles County on Tuesday reached another grim milestone of 11,000 coronavirus deaths as cases continue to overwhelm hospitals. L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solida on Monday said the county saw a rise of 400,000 new cases in about a month, the Los Angeles Times reported. In a memo, the county’s Emergency Medical Services Agency ordered paramedic crews not to transport patients who have experienced a cardiac arrest and are unable to be revived in the field.
h Hawaii plans to use an online reservation system to vaccinate people to avoid crowds and long lines at distribution centers, officials said Tuesday. Dr. Libby Char, the director of the state Department of Health, said she wants to avoid having older residents wait in long lines to get vaccinated, as some have in Florida.
h As England enters a lockdown, Britain’s Office for National Statistics says one in every 50 people has been infected in the last week. The number of people infected in London is even higher.