Covid vaccination effort stumbles
What happened
With the U.S. recording up to 300,000 new Covid-19 cases a day, and daily deaths hitting a record 4,400, the Trump administration this week sought to streamline a disastrously bungled vaccine rollout. States were urged to expand eligibility for available doses to anyone over 65 and those with pre-existing conditions, rather than limit the first vaccines to over-75s and health workers. The change, intended to accelerate the pace of vaccination as millions of doses remain in storage, means 152 million Americans are now eligible for shots. Moderna and Pfizer likely won’t have enough doses of their vaccines to meet that demand until summer. Only 10 million people had received a jab as of this week, and many state-led efforts have struggled: Florida’s first-come, firstinoculated policy forced seniors to camp out overnight at vaccination sites; New York City’s crash-prone appointment portals proved impossible for many residents to navigate.
The raging pandemic, which has killed more than 380,000 Americans, is forcing overwhelmed health systems to ration care. In Los Angeles County, ambulance crews were told not to transport patients who have little chance of survival. A more contagious variant of the virus that was first detected in the U.K. is now spreading in the U.S. and is expected to further strain health services.
What the columnists said
The U.S. “is failing at getting vaccines into arms,” said Dr. Leana Wen in WashingtonPost.com. To speed things up, Trump officials have adopted President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to release “every available dose” to states, after initially reserving half the supply to ensure that everyone vaccinated can get a booster shot after several weeks. So what happens if that booster is delayed by weeks or months? Some experts think that will have a minimal effect on vaccine effectiveness, yet there’s no evidence to back this assertion. And if there is a long delay, “will the entire vaccine series need to start over”?
“It is time for simplification,” said Paul Peterson in The Wall Street Journal. Doses are wasting away in freezers because of overcomplicated eligibility rules. Here’s a fix: “The older the person, the higher the priority.” In Massachusetts, the average age of patients who die from Covid-19 is 80; in Florida, over-65s account for more than 80 percent of fatalities. Prioritizing the elderly is a simple and practical solution until supply increases.
“The hardest work still lies ahead,” said Sarah Zhang in TheAtlantic.com. The first phase of the vaccination campaign targeted hospitals and long-term care facilities, where people eligible for shots are concentrated and easy to find. In the coming months, state and local health departments will need to run vaccination centers that can handle thousands of people a day. When the pool of eager vaccine recipients is exhausted, officials will need to persuade the reluctant and the skeptical to get shots if we’re ever going to reach herd immunity. “This is the challenge, and the end of the pandemic depends on it.”