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Last week, amid a stormy and chaotic rollout of the national coronavirus vaccination campaign, the Trump administration released new guidelines dramatically expanding vaccine eligibility to those 65 and over.
Outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said there was no reason for states to complete immunizations for all health care providers before opening vaccinations to more Americans. elderly and other vulnerable populations, comparing the situation to boarding a plane at an airport gate.
“You don’t wait until every person in a group is literally on board before moving on to the next,” Azar said of his efforts to remove a troubling bottleneck that has slowed immunization efforts, even as more and more people are contracting COVID-19.
But by expanding eligibility as vaccine stocks still remain well below demand, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has created a new problem.
Everyone now wants to board the plane at the same time.
The result has been anger and frustration in New Jersey and elsewhere, as hundreds of thousands of people try to access a still limited number of vaccines in a state that officials say only receives around 100. 000 doses per week.
Indeed, with the expansion of eligibility, appointments available to obtain the vaccine in New Jersey are now scarce or non-existent.
“The vaccine supply is still extremely limited and will be for some time,” said Judith Persichilli, New Jersey’s health commissioner.
A health expert who backed the CDC’s call to expand eligibility, meanwhile, warned of an even bigger problem. Will there be enough trained medical personnel to administer the vaccine as more supplies become available?
“What is starting to emerge right now is the understanding that there aren’t enough frontline staff to support the immunization process to be able to give all these injections into people’s arms,” he said. said Perry N. Halkitis, dean of Rutgers School of Public Health.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar talks about expanding vaccine eligibility at a press conference last Tuesday.AP
New Jersey, like most other states, initially targeted healthcare workers and nursing homes for its limited supply of vaccines. But he quickly saw his immunization figures fall well short of many other states.
New Jersey ranked just 29 out of 50 states for vaccinations given per 100,000 people on Friday, according to the latest CDC data.
Similar problems were seen in New York City, which came under fire after it was revealed that the state had to throw away doses of the vaccine because it did not have enough people in the highest-risk and highest-priority groups. to get vaccinated.
Last week, New Jersey health officials quickly adopted the CDC’s new guidelines, expanding vaccine eligibility to all people over the age of 65. In addition, the state said people aged 16 to 64 with specific medical conditions would also be allowed to sign up for the vaccine and included 2 million smokers, who are at health risk if they contract the virus.
Despite the long wait times for nominations created by the widening of eligibility, Halkitis said state leaders should have rethought the phased approach as soon as it was clear vaccinations were lower than expected. in the first eligible group.
He noted that only a third of the doses available to states nationwide were actually used, in part because a number of health workers had chosen not to be vaccinated.
Still, he said the lack of a vaccine on hand was not his biggest concern.
“The problem we have has less to do with the vaccine stock, than with the actual power of the person to deliver the vaccine,” he said, referring to the need for health professionals who can administer the vaccine. vaccines.
In a speech on Friday, President-elect Joe Biden called the vaccine rollout in the United States a “dismal failure” and announced plans to get more people vaccinated, create more places to get vaccinated. , to mobilize more medical teams to get the shots in people’s arms, increase the supply and “get out as quickly as possible”.
Biden said he is looking to increase the availability of vaccines at pharmacies, set up mobile clinics to get vaccines in underserved communities, while encouraging all states to expand vaccine eligibility to people of 65 years and over.
In the meantime, New Jersey officials said the state would continue to review recommendations from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, a group of medical and public health experts who are developing recommendations on the vaccine use.
“We might change groupings as we move forward and hopefully get ready for more vaccine,” Persichilli said.
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Ted Sherman can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on twitter @TedShermanSL.
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