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The federal government is turning to private pharmacies to administer COVID-19 vaccines, in an effort to speed up the number of Americans being inoculated against the disease.
A Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) vaccine tracker reports that at least 5.3 million doses have been administered in the United States as of January 6, out of almost 17.3 million doses distributed. As late as December 23, Operation Warp Speed leaders had stated that 20 million doses would be distributed by the end of 2020.
"We've been examining the challenges that might have slowed the ramp up of administering vaccines over the last several weeks, taking immediate action and laying out ways for states to speed up administration," said US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Alex Azar in a briefing with reporters.
Azar said that distribution and administration had been hampered by the Christmas and New Year's holidays, and he said a reporting lag likely understates the true number of vaccines given. Acknowledging the slow pace of the rollout, Azar said, "we all know ultimate goal is not vaccines in warehouses or freezers, but shots in arms, helping to protect American lives."
HHS has now decided on an "early launch" of a federal partnership with 19 pharmacy chains, which will let states allocate vaccines directly to some 40,000 pharmacy locations, said Azar. "The plan had been to ramp up this partnership over time because vaccine supply would not be sufficient to spread across all of the pharmacy partners right away."
Instead, the partnership is being activated now, he said. Continue Reading
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