Washington – Former Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Dr. Scott Gottlieb suggested on Sunday that the Biden administration would take more “tailor-made” efforts to ensure that vaccines against the coronavirus get into the arms of Americans in disadvantaged communities.
“I would use the federal and state resources and create more tailor-made solutions that can be used in some of the hard-to-reach environments, in some of the disadvantaged communities, whether you can move mobile vans to those communities, try work through community groups, local health care providers, church groups and community health centers to vaccinate hard-to-reach populations, ”Gottlieb said in an interview with“ Face the Nation. ”“ That’s a very difficult task. It is expensive. It is custom work. ‘
Gottlieb, who led the FDA for nearly two years under former President Donald Trump, said the new administration is “taking a whole of the above approach” to the distribution of vaccines, from supporting vaccination sites to sending vaccine doses directly to pharmacies. But he cautioned against spending too much federal resources on mass vaccination sites, because Americans who go there to get their COVID-19 shots are likely to be served by pharmacies at Walmart, Rite Aid, CVS, and Walgreens.
“I’d put the federal resources into that kind of mission, and let Walmart work on the Easy Demand and Rite Aid,” he said of reaching out to disadvantaged communities.
While the Biden administration has taken steps to accelerate the pace of vaccination administration, Gottlieb and other public health experts have emphasized that new coronavirus variants first identified in the UK, South Africa and Brazil add to the need for Americans to act so quickly. possibly to be vaccinated. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there have been about 1,000 reported cases of the British strain, B.1.1.7, in 39 states, and more than a dozen reported cases of the South African variant, B.1.351, in about ten least five states.
The emergence of the new variants has prompted vaccine makers such as Pfizer and Moderna to develop new booster vaccines to address them. Gottlieb said drug makers should decide when to shift production to the boosters by July and August.
“You don’t want to throw all of your eggs in that basket, but you do want to create a supply that you have on hand in the fall when you need those vaccines,” he said. “So I think that’s about where you’re going to make that decision. The time to start the manufacturing process and actually get the vaccine ready is about two months. So if you start manufacturing in July, you start it. get the vaccine off the line in time for the fall. “
While drug manufacturers in the US are working on shots that will protect against the new coronavirus strains, officials in the UK have decided to continue administering a vaccine developed by the University of Oxford and AstraZeneca, although it has been shown to be is not as effective. trials against the South African variant.
Gottlieb said he understands the decision to continue using the Oxford / AstraZeneca shot as it is cheap, accessible and easier to store. But he suggested there would be a “Plan B” of another shot to send to regions where the South African variety becomes the dominant species.
“If you put a vaccine in those markets where we know it doesn’t cover B.1.351, the South African variety, you run the risk of choosing that variety in those markets,” he says. said. “And so you need a Plan B about which vaccine to use in those regions, if B.1.351 actually becomes widespread in those regions after you get vaccinated with the AstraZeneca vaccine.”