[ad_1]
The administration is now developing a strategy on how to run a nation with 68% of the population at least partially immunized, where pockets of the country will be subject to periodic epidemics while the majority of Americans move on.
Officials predict a massive effort to convert people one shot at a time that could last for months, and this is likely to be complicated by growing Republican resistance to what was once a largely bipartisan attempt to get the country vaccinated.
“We are under no illusions that each person at this point will take longer to reach,” said a senior administration official. “The first 180 million was a lot easier than the next 5 million.”
The change comes as the more transmissible Delta variant leads to a resurgence of Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations in unvaccinated communities across the United States. -month low.
It’s a slowdown that administration officials said was inevitable, and a side effect of the vaccine rollout far faster than the government expected. The rapid deployment left a surplus of fire by the summer and may have averted hundreds of thousands more deaths while easing pressure on local health departments and hospitals.
Yet as the pandemic recedes and officials focus on the holdouts, their efforts are made increasingly difficult by conservative politicians and pundits who have stepped up criticism of the vaccination campaign.
More recently, the administration was quick to tone down Health Secretary Xavier Becerra’s reaction that “it is absolutely the government’s business” to know which Americans have been vaccinated – an episode described as frustrating. for officials who are already trying to tackle the misinformation surrounding vaccines.
Since April, the gap in vaccination rates between counties that voted for Biden in the 2020 election and those that opted for former President Donald Trump has increased fivefold, according to an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Meanwhile, the White House is redoubling its efforts to convert the unvaccinated by stepping up outreach programs and further expanding vaccine availability, while adopting an increasingly urgent tone.
Yet, major advances or sharp increases in the vaccination rate are hardly expected. Almost everyone who wants to get vaccinated has already received one, according to surveys. In the White House, officials estimate that only about a third of those who are not vaccinated are in “wait and see” mode most likely to be persuaded to get vaccinated.
“We were spoiled in a way by the early numbers because it really represented all of this pent-up demand for the vaccine,” said Richard Besser, CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and former acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. . .
And although there is still room for progress, “there is a core group in every segment that has lower vaccination rates where there will simply be no movement,” he added. .
Biden officials adopt a mantra the senior administration official described as “every hit counts.” After going through a series of important immunization milestones, the focus is on move away from speed and turn to a less quantifiable measure of success: the feeling of returning to normal.
“Every person we can get vaccinated at this point is another protected person,” the official said. “You have to be realistic that people in this phase are going to take a little longer.”
It is a tacit admission that, other than an anticipated increase in immunizations when young children become eligible for the vaccine, there is not much left to generate new demand.
Although an array of prominent health experts argue the Food and Drug Administration may be the top claim In fully endorsing vaccines, there is skepticism within the administration that millions resist until the agency gives its final approval.
And while the White House has been careful not to get involved in FDA processes, officials have said they don’t expect vaccine approvals to be successful until at least fall, because the agency evaluates data submitted on an ongoing basis by drug manufacturers. .
Another potential channel for accelerated vaccinations – primary care physicians – has not grown as quickly as some had hoped, with some physicians reluctant to turn their practices into vaccine distribution points when the vaccine is already widely available. available elsewhere. Others accepted the effort, only to be forced to throw away much of the multidose vials after vaccinating only a few patients per day.
Instead, Biden’s Covid-19 response team has focused recently on increasing the vaccination rate of young Americans. Officials believe that a significant number of people are still ready to be shot, but have not done everything possible to search for it.
Jeff Zients, the White House’s Covid-19 response coordinator, and other federal officials have met privately in recent weeks with various school associations to encourage them to turn their individual schools into vaccination sites – and to get them vaccinated. eligible students long before classrooms open in the fall.
“Schools are places of trust, not just for children and youth, but for parents and community members,” said John Bridgeland, co-founder of COVID Collaborative, who worked with the administration on vaccine messaging efforts.
The administration has also coordinated with business groups, in an effort to convince more employers to encourage their workers to get vaccinated.
But the process is already politically charged. Universities in GOP-led states have already suffered an intense backlash for requiring students to be vaccinated before returning to campus, and similar demands instituted by hospitals have sparked protests.
In some high schools and businesses, even the prospect of giving vaccines voluntarily has become a political flashpoint.
“It’s fair: we would love to do it, but I have parents who are against it, or my board is not for it,” said Dan Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School. Administrators, regarding the complaint he received from some superintendents.
The one option that is sure to trigger mass vaccinations is also one that federal and state health officials are reluctant to discuss: blanket warrants. In both the public and private sectors, administration officials have pointed out that they go only go so far as to encourage people to get shot, wary of hardening opposition and fueling conspiracy theories.
State officials, meanwhile, are preparing for community-by-community debate on mandates likely to erupt once vaccines are fully approved.
“What we would like to do is get an extra 10% quick,” said Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer for the Association of State and Territory Health Officials. “Maybe the warrants would do that. But I’m not sure if it’s worth it for the amount of feedback we would get. “
In the White House, there is little talk of a defined end game for the Covid-19 response – even as cases decline and Biden increasingly pivot towards reviving a post-pandemic economy.
On the contrary, Biden’s team expects the vaccination effort to gradually shift to the long-term background, as the vivid deployments and big ideas that marked the first six months turn into a slow and steady campaign to get more hits in the arms.
“We are at a stage in the pandemic where things are a bit more one by one,” the senior administration official said. “It’s certainly not as sexy to routinely get vaccinations against Covid, but it’s just as important.”
[ad_2]
Source link