People wait in line on New Year’s Eve to get a COVID-19 vaccination at a senior citizen site in a vacant store on the Oviedo Mall. Governor Ron DeSantis ordered Florida residents aged 65 and older to be included in the first group to be offered vaccinations against the coronavirus, against the recommendations of the federal CDC.
Paul Hennessy | LightRocket | Getty Images
The head of the Food and Drug Administration said Friday he is urging states to vaccinate lower-priority groups against Covid-19 as US officials seek to speed up the pace after a slower-than-expected initial rollout.
FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn did not recommend vaccinations to all Americans, telling reporters that states should give shots to groups that make “sense,” such as the elderly, those with pre-existing conditions, police, firefighters and other essential workers.
“We’ve heard in the press that some people have said, ‘Okay, I’m waiting for all of my health workers to get vaccinated. We’ve ingested about 35% of the vaccine.’ I think it is reasonable to extend that “to other groups,” Hahn said Friday morning at an event hosted by the Alliance for Health Policy. “I would strongly encourage that we continue by giving states the opportunity to be more comprehensive in who can give them the vaccine. “
Hahn stressed that vaccine distribution still needs to be driven by “data and science,” adding that states ultimately know what’s best for their communities.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has provided states with an overview that recommends prioritizing health workers and nursing homes first, but states can distribute the vaccine at their discretion. But in recent days, U.S. health officials have expressed concern that national guidelines may slow the rate of vaccinations as states restrict access to shots to certain people.
According to data from the CDC, more than 21.4 million doses of vaccine were distributed in the US on Thursday, but just over 5.9 million doses were delivered. The number is a long way from the federal government’s goal of vaccinating 20 million Americans by the end of 2020 and 50 million Americans by the end of this month.
Earlier this week, Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services, advised states not to “micromanage” their assigned vaccine doses, saying it is better to have the injections removed as soon as possible.
“There is no reason states should vaccinate all health care providers before opening vaccinations to elderly Americans or other particularly vulnerable populations,” Azar told reporters in a newsletter on Wednesday.
“If they are already using the vaccine that has been assigned, ordered, distributed, shipped, and they get it into the arms of the healthcare providers, that’s great,” he added. “But if for some reason their distribution is difficult and they leave the vaccine in freezers, then at least you should open it up to people 70 and older.”
Global health experts had said that distributing the vaccines to about 331 million Americans could turn out to be far more complicated and chaotic than initially thought in a matter of months. The logistics of getting and administering the vaccine are complex and require special training. For example, Pfizer’s vaccine requires a storage temperature of minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit.
During a press call Thursday, state health officials said they were working to administer the vaccine as soon as possible, but blamed insufficient funding and lack of communication from the federal government for the delay.
They said they expected the vaccination rate to increase once the Johnson & Johnson vaccine was approved. The J & J vaccine requires only one injection, while the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses approximately three to four weeks apart.
US officials acknowledged that vaccine distribution has been slower than they hoped. Dr. Nancy Messonnier, director of the CDC’s National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, told STAT News on Tuesday that she expects the introduction of the vaccine to accelerate “quite massively” in the coming weeks.
“It’s the early stages of a very complicated task, but one that we face,” she told STAT.