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In the hours between Trump leaving the White House and entering Biden, a team of cleaners will wipe down all surfaces and spray the air with disinfectant. After that, masks will be mandatory and testing will be constant. POLITICO’s Alice Miranda Ollstein explains how Biden and his team are working to turn the White House from hotspot to bubble.
Unlike coronavirus tests, which the wealthy could buy directly from a range of companies, Covid vaccines are rare and tightly controlled.
Hospitals are now receiving shipments and vaccinating their own staff while the federal government has contracted with large drugstore chains to send teams of workers to senior care facilities to administer the vaccines.
“They are all bought, paid for and distributed by the federal government,” said Eric Toner, senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Safety. “Not only do they want to make sure it’s not wasted or diverted, but they need to know exactly who received the first dose so they can follow up with them for the second dose, which requires collecting their identity and their contact details. “
The question is what could happen in the months to come, in the context of the uncontrolled spread of the virus. When an FDA panel of experts voted on Thursday to recommend that the agency return a second Covid vaccine from Moderna, an NIH scientist abstained from voting, saying he wanted federal guidelines for itself. ensure that it was “more targeted to people at high risk for diseases and more threatening diseases.” He also added that he was “very uncomfortable” with a blanket authorization that allows states to decide who should receive the injections in which order.
Operation Warp Speed, the federal government’s vaccine accelerator, did not respond on time to questions about whether measures were in place to prevent line break or whether the issue was discussed with states, the CDC did not respond to a request for comment.
Despite the absence of clear federal or state guardrails, there are some mechanisms in place to prevent people from claiming a medical condition they do not have in order to get in line.
Community health centers that serve nearly 30 million of the country’s most vulnerable patients say they plan to use their electronic health record to generate reports showing which of their existing patients are responding to certain metrics, such as whether they have chronic illnesses or are older.
“I think we started from the point of view that we trust our patients, that those who need them, we will know who they are,” said Ron Yee, chief medical officer of the National Association of Health Centers community. But he acknowledged that it will be more difficult to verify that new patients meet the criteria.
Andie Pivarunas, director of public affairs for the National Community Pharmacists Association, said its members will rely whenever possible on “health records and prescribing history” to determine who is eligible for early access to vaccines, and their “professional judgment” when these records are not available. not available.
Officials in many states say that while this system will not be perfect, delegating these difficult decisions to healthcare providers trumps any alternatives.
“This is a medical operation, not a political one,” New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Wednesday. “If you remember the Covid testing, there was a lot of back and forth, who got it first, and was there favoritism, etc. Health professionals will administer phase 2 [of the vaccine] by state guidelines, but it will be done by medical professionals. “
While the rich and famous may not have a clear advantage, the rich and powerful certainly will. As officials continue to refine their vaccine distribution plans for essential workers, lobbyists from a wide range of industries are lobbying federal and state entities to prioritize groups ranging from manufacturers of pesticides to zookeepers.
“It’s ultimately about who and what as a company do we value,” said former CDC director Tom Frieden. “The key is to be completely transparent about the progress of the decision-making, because you’re not going to maintain the public’s trust if it seems like people are skipping the line. When you’re in a scarcity situation like the one we’re experiencing right now, you want to make sure that you don’t even create the appearance of impropriety. “
Others fear that if states define “essential workers” too broadly, it could mean months of delays for other priority groups, such as people with diabetes and other co-morbidities.
“You may not reach people with poor health for a very long time,” Toner warned. “Many high-risk people could die while we vaccinate low-risk people.”
Brianna Ehley contributed to this report.
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