The record-speed creation of Covid-19 vaccines was a triumph. So why is it taking so long to vaccinate Americans?
The answer starts with tens of millions of doses of Covid-19 vaccines left unused in medical freezers in the US for the first weeks of the rollout.
At launch, the federal government has reserved many more doses for nursing homes than the facilities needed. A fragmented chain of communication between the federal authorities sending the doses and the local sites that eventually inject them left vaccinators in the dark about how many patients they could schedule. Some hospitals and health departments were concerned about limited supplies and withheld doses to make sure they had enough to give staff second shots or keep appointments, creating a bottleneck for outflow.
Vaccinations are now increasing. But early stumbling blocks could prolong the pandemic and leave more people without protection. Health officials say the new coronavirus variants that appear to spread more easily are making vaccine distribution more urgent.
The Trump administration has invested heavily in rapid vaccine development, but has gone the last mile to get the guns in the hands of states and localities. That approach resulted in multiple, sometimes conflicting systems, and failed to ensure that local sites had information on vaccine shipments they needed to administer injections quickly.