White House senior adviser Andy Slavitt of Covid-19 warned that there are concerns that, amid a lack of supply predictability, providers are withholding available doses.
“We believe that some healthcare providers regularly withhold doses intended as first doses and instead keep them in reserve for second doses for patients. We want to be clear that we understand why healthcare professionals have done that, but we don’t need to. happen, and shouldn’t happen, ”Slavitt said during Monday’s virtual press conference.
But Slavitt predicted that “the efficiency of the doses administered will steadily improve.”
“By January 20, states had managed 46% of their inventory. Now it’s 62%. We’re focused on this every hour of the day,” he said.
Slavitt suggested that in some cases patients’ appointments for a first dose are canceled and insisted on the urgency to get the first doses as soon as possible. He said the government’s move last week to provide a three-week window into vaccine shipping plans was intended to allay concerns that second doses could be held up.
“With this action, states and vaccine providers will be using their first doses more quickly to vaccinate as many people as quickly and fairly as possible, because they now have the predictability that the second dose will be there when the time comes,” he says. said.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, made another plea Monday for people to get vaccinated against Covid-19 when it is their turn to roll out the vaccine – not only for personal health, but also to help prevent more coronavirus variants from developing in the future.
“You should get vaccinated if it becomes available as soon and as soon as possible,” Fauci said during a White House briefing, adding that viruses cannot mutate if they don’t replicate.
“You stop their replication with large-scale vaccination,” Fauci said. “Please get vaccinated when the vaccine becomes available to you.”
CNN’s Jacqueline Howard contributed to this report.