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Trump administration officials spearheading Operation Warp Speed acknowledged that the launch of the coronavirus vaccine has been slower than expected and that it was “unlikely” to meet its target of 20 million vaccines by the end of month.
The process has been “slower than we think it would be,” Dr. Moncef Slaoui, who is leading the administration’s efforts to speed up vaccine production and distribution, told reporters during a press conference last week. He added that the 20 million goal two-dose vaccines are unlikely to be met.
The Trump administration has repeatedly said that its goal is to vaccinate 20 million Americans by the end of the year. About 2 million people have been vaccinated as of Dec. 28, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although administration officials say there is a delay in the data.
“By the end of December, we expect to have around 40 million doses of the [Pfizer and Moderna] vaccines available for distribution, “Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said last month.” Enough to vaccinate 20 million of our most vulnerable Americans. “
Slaoui told reporters earlier this month that the Trump administration’s efforts to boost vaccine production “allow us to feel confident that we will be able to distribute enough vaccine to immunize 20 million people in the US. In December, that’s 40 million doses. “
Slaoui admitted last week that the process of receiving “arm injections” has been slower than expected and “the compromise we can make is to make the doses of the vaccine available.”
But Gen. Gustave Perna, Operation Warp Speed’s chief operating officer, said during a press conference last week that only half of the promised doses would be distributed to states in January.
“We have allocated 15.5 million doses of vaccine and are on track to allocate another 4.5 to 5 million next week, which will bring us to 20 million doses of vaccine allocated to the United States before the end of the year.” said. “We will finish those deliveries in the first week of January.”
Perna, who is in charge of overseeing the logistics of the vaccine launch, said the government had done a “good job so far” in distributing the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, but admitted there have already been problems.
“We’ve had a handful of packages that we tried to deliver that weren’t destined for the right place, but we captured them before they left them and redirected them to the right place,” he said. “And we had a couple of … shipments that didn’t go out on the correct day.”
Perna previously said there were also temperature issues with thousands of doses of Pfizer’s vaccine, which must be stored at around minus 70 degrees Celsius.
State officials across the country have also complained that their vaccine allocations had been sharply cut earlier this month. Pfizer said it had millions of doses in warehouses waiting for delivery instructions.
Perna told reporters that he takes “personal responsibility for the lack of communication” with state governments.
“There is a lag between what is available and what is releasable,” he said, “because we are talking about hundreds and thousands and millions of doses that we want to make sure are the correct ones.”
“We all made the mistake or mistake of assuming that the vaccine that is actually produced and released is already available for shipment, when in fact there is a two-day delay between when we generate a large amount of data that they show this. The vaccine vial is really safe and correct and the time when we can ship it, “Slaoui told CNN later.
“The FDA has to receive certain documentation,” he added. “And that’s really where that lag period has resulted in gaps between what was in the plan and what was actually done. I think we’ve addressed it.”
Stephen Hanh, head of the Food and Drug Administration, said that Pfizer and Moderna they are required to “submit certificates of analysis for each batch at least 48 hours prior to vaccine distribution,” but “may distribute without waiting for FDA approval.”
State officials also warned that Trump’s delay of the coronavirus relief bill, which he finally signed on Sunday, also prevented billions in funding from being allocated for vaccine distribution.
“Every minute of delay affects how many people can get the vaccine and when,” Adriane Casalotti of the National Association of County and City Health Officials told CNBC.
Pfizer also said the Trump administration turned down the opportunity to buy an additional 100 million doses by next spring, though the company later said it reached a deal that would require the administration to invoke the Defense Production Act to boost the capacity of company manufacturing after months. of resistance of the White House. Using the Defense Production Act, a wartime law that allows the president to require companies to help with production necessary for national security, will allow Pfizer to secure enough raw materials to produce up to 100 million more doses. in July, the company said. Previously, Pfizer cut its estimated production in half at the end of the year due to a shortage of raw materials.
President-elect Joe Biden will invoke the Defense Production Act to “ensure that personal protective equipment, testing capacity and raw materials for vaccines are produced in an adequate supply,” said Dr. Celine Gounder, member. from Biden’s coronavirus advisory council. he told CNBC on Monday.
Sen. Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat, who sits on the Senate committee that oversees public health, said he and other Democrats have been trying to “pressure the Trump administration to fully invoke the DPA” for nine months.
“They refused, probably to protect private industry profits,” he added. he tweeted. “There is so much ripe fruit like this to improve our response to COVID.”
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