WASHINGTON (AP) – The Trump administration is asking states to speed up the delivery of COVID-19 vaccines to people 65 and older and to others at high risk by no longer taking the second dose of the two doses of shots officials said Tuesday.
Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, said that “the administration in the United States was too narrowly focused.”
As a result, he said, the Trump administration is now asking states to vaccinate people 65 and older and those under 65 with underlying health conditions that put them at risk. He said vaccine production is such that the second dose of the dual vaccine can be delivered without compromising immunization for those who received the first injection.
“We now believe our production is predictable enough to ensure second doses are available to people in ongoing production,” Azar told ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “So everything is now available to our states and our healthcare providers.”
Each state has its own plan for who should be vaccinated, based on recommendations from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC recommendations give first priority to health professionals and nursing home residents.
But the slow pace of vaccine rollout has frustrated many Americans at a time when the coronavirus death toll continues to soar. More than 376,000 people have died, according to the Johns Hopkins database.
Azar said it was now time to “move to the next phase of the vaccine program” and expand the pool of those eligible for the first dose.
That also means expanding the number of places where people can be vaccinated by adding community centers and additional drugstores.
“We’ve already distributed more vaccines than there are health workers and people in nursing homes,” Azar said. ‘We need to get more administrative channels. We have to take it to the pharmacy, to community health centers. “
He said the federal government will “deploy teams to support states that make massive vaccination efforts if they so choose.”
US surgeon general Jerome Adams said hundreds of thousands of people across the country are vaccinated every day, but the pace of vaccinations needs to improve.
“We are in a race against this virus and frankly we are behind,” Adams told Fox & Friends. “The good news is that 700,000 people are vaccinated every day. We are going to hit 1 million people and we have to keep increasing that pace. “
President-elect Joe Biden is expected to deliver a speech on Thursday outlining his plan to speed up vaccines to more people in the early part of his administration. His transition team has vowed to release as many doses of vaccine as possible, rather than continuing the Trump administration’s policy of withholding millions of doses to ensure there is enough supply to give those who receive the first injection a second. get it.
The Pfizer BioNTech vaccine requires a second injection approximately three weeks after the first vaccination. Another vaccine, this one manufactured by Moderna, requires a second injection about four weeks after that. One-time vaccines are still being tested.