Public health experts blame rapid expansion for vaccine shortages
Some states note lack of reliable delivery data
Public health experts Thursday blamed COVID-19 vaccine shortages in the U.S. partly on the Trump administration’s push to expand vaccination drives to reach the nation’s estimated 54 million people age 65 and over.
The push has not been accompanied by enough doses, according to officials, limiting states’ ability to attack the outbreak that has killed over 400,000 Americans.
Over the past few days, authorities in California, Ohio, West Virginia, Florida and Hawaii have warned that supplies were running out. In New York City, shortages meant shots were canceled or postponed, and new appointments halted. President Joe Biden has vowed to turn the situation around.
The vaccine rollout so far has been “a major disappointment,” said Dr. Eric Topol, head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute.
Problems started with the Trump administration not ordering enough vaccine, he said. Then, opening the line to senior citizens set people up for disappointment because there wasn’t enough vaccine, he said. The Trump administration also left crucial planning to the states and didn’t provide necessary funding.
The U.S. Health and Human Services Department has suggested there were unrealistic expectations among states as to how much vaccine was on the way. But some public health experts said the states have not been getting reliable information on vaccine deliveries and amounts, making planning difficult.
Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, said, “Unless we know how much vaccine is flowing down the pipe, it’s hard to get these things sized right.”
State health secretaries have asked the Biden administration for earlier, more reliable vaccine delivery predictions, said Washington state Health Secretary Dr. Umair Shah.
Dr. Marcus Plescia of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials was among those who said opening vaccinations to senior citizens was premature. “We needed steady federal leadership on this early in the launch,” he said. “That did not happen and now … there is going to be some lag for supply to catch up with demand.”
Deliveries go to the states every week, he said, and the government and drugmakers have given assurances large quantities are in the pipeline.
The government has delivered nearly 38 million doses of vaccine to the states, about 17.5 million of which have been administered, according to the CDC, which notes that some 2.4 million people have received the required two doses — well short of the numbers needed to vanquish the outbreak.