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Slow Rollout of the COVID-19 Vaccine

In a perfect world, when 1 million COVID-19 vaccines are produced then shortly thereafter, 1 million new individuals would receive the vaccine. However, this is far from the truth of things. We are seeing a slow rollout of the COVID-19 Vaccine.

Since the first death from COVID-19 – the country and world has been waiting anxiously for a vaccine. Now that it is here, we are seeing plenty of problems outside of the expected difficulties.

The slow rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine is not completely unexpected however some of the problems could have been preventable.

The COVID-19 vaccine has been approved by the FDA to be given to individuals around the world.  The European Union has approved a 450 million rollout and the first person in Germany was a 101-year-old nursing home patient. Check out NPR to listen to more:  NPR – Latest on COVID 19 Rollout

Margaret Keenan and Britain

Margaret Keenan became the first person in the world, outside of clinical trials, to receive the Pfizer-BioNtech vaccine. Now, more than 600,000 in the UK have been vaccinated. Additionally, the UK became the first country in the world to approve the AstraZeneca/Oxford Vaccine.

This new rollout is done to help the surge in Europe as the highly contagious form of the Coronavirus has caused thousand of additional positive cases.

President Trump blames each state for the criticism for a slow COVID vaccine rollout

More than 11.4 million doses of Pfizer and Moderana’s two-dose vaccines have been distributed across the country, but only 2 million shots have been given. Initially, the projection was that 20 million Americans would receive their first shots before the end of the year. Yet, only half of the expected doses distributed have been accomplished.

President Trump said in a Tweet – “The Federal Government has distributed the vaccines to the states. Now it is up to the states to administer. Get moving!”

President-elect Joe Biden has criticized Trump’s Immunization Program and has pointed out the failure of the program to administer doses as quickly as they are distributed. The U.S to Fall Short of goal to vaccinate 20 million by year’s end.

In fact, President Trump promised more than 40 million doses sent out by Pfizer and Moderna alone. These two pharmaceutical companies have been given emergency authorization by the Food and Drug Administration.

The CDC gives a number of reasons why the number of doses distributed has yet to be administered.

The first problem is the lag in reporting. It can take 24 hours or longer to get an accurate picture of the doses that have been administered.

An additional problem is the allocation on a state level by local health departments. Many of these states have received their doses but are having scheduling issues on getting out the vaccine.

Additional problems are also with the launch of the Federal Government’s partnership with pharmacy chains like CVS and Wallgreens – which will be tasked with vaccinating long-term care residents. This partnership is still pending.

Dr. Fauci said, “I believe that as we get into January, we are going to see an increase in the momentum.” We will “catch up to the projected pace that we had spoken about a month or two ago.”

Distribution Problems

Around the country states and hospitals have publicized the problems with the distribution process.

Some Hospitals have indicated that health care workers on the front-line are the last ones being offered the vaccine. Sign-ups, glitches, and cutting in line have caused headaches around the country.

Some states, including New York, were promised vaccines for officers, and other first responders in the last week of December. Those individuals have been told not to expect their vaccines until sometime in January.

Again and again, we’ve seen problems in the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccines. A lag is expected – but what we are seeing around the world is extremely poor planning and follow-through.