The federal government traditionally plays a principal role in
funding and overseeing the manufacturing and distribution of new
vaccines, which often draw on scarce ingredients and need to be
made, stored and transported carefully.
There won't be enough vaccine for all 330 million Americans right
away, so the government also has a role in deciding who gets it
first, and in educating a vaccine-wary
https://www.reuters.com/
article/us-health-coronavirus-vaccine-poll-exclu/
exclusive-a-quarter-of-americans-are-hesitant-
about-a-coronavirus-vaccine-
reuters-ipsos-poll-idUSKBN22X19G public about its potential life
saving merits.
Right now, it is unclear who in Washington is in charge of
oversight, much less any critical details, some state health
officials and members of Congress told Reuters.
Last week, a senior Trump administration official told Reuters that
Operation Warp Speed, a White House task force first announced
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-vaccine-development
in May, was "committed to implementing the (vaccine) plan and
distributing medical countermeasures as fast as possible."
However, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention (CDC), told a Senate hearing on July 2 that
his agency would spearhead the campaign to develop and distribute a
vaccine for the new coronavirus. "This is really the prime
responsibility of CDC," he said.
Republican Senator Roy Blunt, who chairs a panel overseeing health
program funding, is one of several lawmakers pushing for the CDC,
which was founded in 1946 to counter malaria, to lead the effort.
"They are the only federal agency with a proven track record of
vaccine distribution and long-standing agreements with health
departments across the country," Blunt said in a statement in
mid-July.
HISTORY REPEATING?
The United States leads the world in COVID-related fatalities with
more than 150,000 in five months. After underestimating
https://www.reuters.com/article/
us-health-coronavirus-mixed-messages/like-the-flu-trumps-
coronavirus-messaging-confuses-public-
pandemic-researchers-say-idUSKBN2102GY the virus' threat, President
Donald Trump and his advisers are embroiled in internal battles over
how to handle the crisis just three months before his re-election
bid against Democratic candidate Joe Biden.
A July 15-21 Reuters/Ipsos poll showed that only 38% of the public
supports Trump's handling of the pandemic.
Health officials and lawmakers say they worry that without thorough
planning and coordination with states, the vaccine distribution
could be saddled with the same sort of disruptions that led to
chronic shortages of coronavirus diagnostic tests and other medical
supplies.
Washington should be educating people now about vaccination plans in
order to build public confidence and avoid confusion, said Senator
Patty Murray, the senior Democrat on the health program funding
committee.
[to top of second column] |
"What is the priority, who gets it first? First-responders,
healthcare workers, those kinds of things," Murray said in a
telephone interview. On July 13, Murray published a road map
https://www.help.senate.gov/
download/murray-vaccines-white-paper-final for vaccine distribution.
A poorly executed rollout would mean "we will be sitting here two
years from now, three years from now, in the same economic and
health position we are today," she said.
STATES IN THE DARK
Some state public health officials, meanwhile, say their entreaties
to the Trump administration have been unanswered.
"We have not heard anything from the federal government since April
23," Danielle Koenig, health promotion supervisor for the Washington
State Department of Health, said in an email.
That is when her agency received preliminary guidance on vaccine
planning from the CDC.
Immunization experts along with state and local public health
officials sent a letter
https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.
immunizationmanagers.org/
resource/resmgr/advocacy_
education/letter_to_ows_leaders
_june_2.pdf to Operation Warp Speed on June 23 pleading for fresh
guidance.
States need to know promptly if the federal government will pay for
the vaccines, as it did during the H1N1 outbreak in 2009, the letter
says. Will alcohol swabs, syringes and personal protective equipment
be included? What about record-keeping and refrigeration to store
the vaccine and who will deliver it?
So far, there's been no official response, said Claire Hannan,
executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers, one
of four organizations that signed the letter.
"We urgently await federal, state and local collaborative
discussions to identify challenges and plan solutions. A vaccination
campaign of this magnitude is unprecedented and it’s going to take
more than an army," Hannan said on Tuesday, referring to Trump's
repeated statements that the U.S. military stands ready to deliver
vaccines.
Trump insists everything is in place.
"We're all set to march when it comes to the vaccine," Trump said at
a White House briefing on Thursday. "... And the delivery system is
all set. Logistically we have a general that's all he does is
deliver things whether it is soldiers or other items.
"We are way ahead on vaccines, way ahead on therapeutics and when we
have it we are all set with our platforms to deliver them very, very
quickly," Trump said.
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Heather Timmons and Grant
McCool)
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