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Amid criticism of a growing number of unused coronavirus vaccines across the country, a senior federal official said on Wednesday that states should vaccinate older and vulnerable Americans.
“States can also speed up vaccine delivery by switching to delivering vaccines to larger populations now,” Alex Azar, Secretary of Human Services and Health, said in a briefing. “There is no reason that states need to complete, say, immunization of all health care providers before opening immunizations to older Americans or other particularly vulnerable populations.”
While a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) panel advised prioritizing frontline medical workers and long-term care facilities, states ultimately decide who should be first in line. for vaccines. The committee, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), previously noted that there will likely be an overlap between phases.
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Azar referred to an appeal with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who said the state would prioritize inoculating people 65 and older, out of step with federal recommendations.
DeSantis told Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Tuesday that Florida was the first state in the United States to begin immunizing residents of long-term care facilities and people over 65.
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During Wednesday’s briefing, Azar said it would be better to vaccinate people of lower priority than to let vaccines continue to be unused.
“It would be far better to act quickly and end up vaccinating some lower priority people than to let the vaccines sit on the back burner while states try to micromanage this process,” Azar said. “Faster administration could save lives now, which means we can’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.”
Azar said the pace of vaccinations had seen “substantial increases in recent days,” and he joined other senior federal officials in hopes that the pace of vaccinations will pick up quickly in the coming weeks. . Indeed, Dr Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Vaccination and Respiratory Diseases, during a call Wednesday, expressed high hopes for an acceleration in the pace of vaccination in the coming weeks amid criticism. resounding from a slow nationwide immunization effort.
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Messonnier said the new vaccines were launched just around the holidays, and now that the holidays are over, she expects the pace of vaccination “to ramp up very quickly.”
As of Thursday morning, the United States had distributed more than 17.3 million doses and at least 5.3 million doses had gone into the arms of Americans, according to data compiled by the CDC.
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