The Trump administration’s push to start distributing a coronavirus vaccine to every state by the beginning of December faces severe logistical problems that have yet to be resolved, over two dozen experts told Politico on Wednesday.
“This is tremendously difficult, expensive work, and we are hearing resoundingly from state and local health departments that they need more help to carry out this last mile,” said Jason Schwartz, a professor of public health at Yale University and a member of Connecticut’s vaccine advisory committee. “Time is running short to get states and cities what they need so we’re not left with millions of highly effective vaccines but no good way to get them to the people who need them.”
Experts note that states are saying that they need over $8 billion in federal funding for promoting and distributing the vaccine, but states cannot properly prepare to start administering the vaccine to priority populations until the federal government tells them how many doses they’ll be getting. Another issue is that privacy concerns have caused almost a dozen states to refuse to share patient data with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which could hamper the government’s ability to track who has been vaccinated.
“The federal government has invested an incredible amount of money and attention in developing these vaccines and that’s gotten us very far very quickly,” said Lori Freeman, National Association of County and City Health Officials chief executive. “We don’t have the investment in getting the vaccine from the lab to the people. ... We’re running out of time for pulling those things together.”
Schwartz added that “if things go badly in the initial weeks it could hamper the vaccination program for months to come.”
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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