CDC Notifies States, Large Cities To Prepare For Vaccine Distribution As Soon As Late October

[robinb]

So, basically, they lied. Shocking, ha Our governor is furious!

My governor is furious too. He (along with other governors) just sent a letter to Secretary Azar asking them to either purchase the millions of vaccines that are currently available from Pfizer or allow our state to purchase the vaccines directly.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

My governor is furious too. He (along with other governors) just sent a letter to Secretary Azar asking them to either purchase the millions of vaccines that are currently available from Pfizer or allow our state to purchase the vaccines directly.

I think the Fed government should buy it (and they really should not dawdle). I don't think individual states should be allowed to buy it especially from straight from a manufacturer. That means only the states that can afford it could do it. With my state constantly outbid for PPE no way would I want to go down that road. That's a haves and haves not on a whole another level.

 

[robinb]

I think the Fed government should buy it. I don't think individual states should be allowed to buy it especially from straight from a manufacturer. That means only the states that can afford it could do it. With my state constantly outbid for PPE no way would I want to go down that road. That's a haves and haves not on a whole another level.

I agree, but if the feds won't do it and the vaccines are there then the states should be able to go ahead and buy them. Everything else was pushed onto the states.

 

[gwynne]

I think the Fed government should buy it. I don't think individual states should be allowed to buy it especially from straight from a manufacturer. That means only the states that can afford it could do it. With my state constantly outbid for PPE no way would I want to go down that road. That's a haves and haves not on a whole another level.

They are going to start using the Defense Production Act for vaccines with new admin, announced today.
Thank heaven. It should have been used many months ago.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I agree, but if the feds won't do it and the vaccines are there then the states should be able to go ahead and buy them. Everything else was pushed onto the states.

I'm saying I don't think the states should be able to period. How cruel would that be to a state hit so hard on economics that they cannot afford a vaccine because some state that had more funds was able to? It would be a bidding war the likes we've never seen. That's like the countries of the world not being able to afford this vaccine, it's the very reason they hoped and prayed that people wouldn't become nationalist over the vaccine with the different countries out there. Some of these poorer countries cannot get aid, it would be very similar to that if we open it up to allow states to purchase their own supply.

I get your viewpoint on it but on an ethical level heck to the no way would I be for that (and I felt that way about PPE and tests too I was frustrated that it took private citizens to purchase this stuff because the states couldn't get Federal resources; I do not want that to happen at all with this vaccine). Obviously I have no say on what ends up happening.

**Sorry don't mean to be coming off so strong, it's not aimed at you personally.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

They are going to start using the Defense Production Act for vaccines with new admin, announced today.
Thank heaven. It should have been used many months ago.

I think it was a couple weeks ago that he announced he would be using it for ramping up the production of vaccines, to get the raw materials for it. And PPE and other things. This new announcement must be an expansion on that. But yes if the act can be used to have auto makers shut down to make ventilators we should have used it for this as well.

 

[godisney14]

Delete

 

[Pyotr]

They are going to start using the Defense Production Act for vaccines with new admin, announced today.
Thank heaven. It should have been used many months ago.

I’m surprised that it wasn’t.

I don’t want to get too political and have this thread closed......

 

[gwynne]

I’m surprised that it wasn’t.

I don’t want to get too political and have this thread closed......

Nor do I. Hence, no links....

But I find the information encouraging for us all.

 

[DLgal]

I would try for the Plant City site in Hillsborough. It’s a decent drive from Kissimmee but totally doable. This week Hillsborough got 9,000 doses. When they open up again I’m signing up my in-laws.

That's not doable for them. My dad has a neck issue and cannot do long drives. That would be like a 2 hour drive for them. They are down in Poinciana, not the part of Kissimmee near WDW.

 

[adkkev]

 

[aggiedog]

The lack of any consistent distribution is maddening. Our rural county got 600 doses initially. The one next to us, same population, same hospital capacity, got 100. The hospital at the next county is letting me keep a list of interested patients that I will submit to the hospital weekly. My local hospital has a single voicemail you call and leave a message. It is obviously almost impossible to call and not be full. This hospital also expressly said it did NOT want my to send them a list of interested patients.

My friend, outside of Houston, was able to go to one of the pharmacies and get vaccines for herself (age 50) and her 2 college kids. None of them are anywhere near 1a/b/c/etc status. I'm not blaming her, as the pharmacy made the call, but it's so random.

 

[Pyotr]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...tent&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
Pfizer released a statement that they have the second doses at the request of the federal government and that there won’t be a supply issue.

 

[Cheburashka]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...tent&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=twitter
Pfizer released a statement that they have the second doses at the request of the federal government and that there won’t be a supply issue.

So the Washington Post jumped to the wrong conclusion. Surprise surprise.

 

[dvcgirl67]

So the Washington Post jumped to the wrong conclusion. Surprise surprise.

yeah...maybe let’s wait to see if the vaccine doses actually show up.

 

[godisney14]

According to the Reuters article, Pfizer is saying OWS asked them to not ship out 2nd doses?

The big question is: Why?

But, regardless, what does shipping out more do if states can't even administer the first doses properly.

Will the shipment of these new doses be reserved for those who got the first shot, or will it be go towards vaccinating those still waiting in line. No one knows yet.

 

[gwynne]

According to the Reuters article, Pfizer is saying OWS asked them to not ship out 2nd doses?

The big question is: Why?

But, regardless, what does shipping out more do if states can't even administer the first doses properly.

Will the shipment of these new doses be reserved for those who got the first shot, or will it be go towards vaccinating those still waiting in line. No one knows yet.

I think we'll know much more after next week.

 

[dvcgirl67]

According to the Reuters article, Pfizer is saying OWS asked them to not ship out 2nd doses?

The big question is: Why?

But, regardless, what does shipping out more do if states can't even administer the first doses properly.

Will the shipment of these new doses be reserved for those who got the first shot, or will it be go towards vaccinating those still waiting in line. No one knows yet.

This is the problem.....there are hundreds of thousands of doses sitting in freezers/refrigerators right now. Operation Warp Speed was very good at getting the funding to the big Pharma companies....full stop. Leaving it up to states, cities, health departments, counties and towns to figure out how to get shots in arms....has been a disaster. It's like building a 100 ft bridge and leaving off the last 10 feet....and hoping that a running start will get you to the other side. We are a big country with a decentralized healthcare system....and we're seeing right now how that goes.

Our Governor said yesterday that we're getting 100K vaccine doses per week. We were supposed to get 142K doses the first week...but that didn't happen. We're 5 weeks in and have 300K people vaccinated....in a state with 9 million people (7 million adults)....4%. If we are stuck at the snail's pace of 100K per week, we're only adding 1.4% of NJ's population per week. Where is the supply ramp-up that we were promised once we had two vaccines on line?

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm hearing more National Guard are being pulled into to help administer vaccines..I remember a brief discussion about using the military and why we weren't and I remember me saying we used/use National Guard for COVID testing sites and for delivering of PPE don't see why we couldn't use them for this purpose too.

 

[huskies90]

Has there been any GOOD news about vaccine distribution? I guess Orange County is getting a handle on it but LA County - whew! Who knew that could be so messed up? I'm trying to get my 75 yo mother vaccinated and she lives across the street from where one of the big distribution centers is being set up. She needs an appointment to walk across the street and get the shot. OK, how do you get an appointment? Uuuhhhh... working on it - we'll have an app for that next week. OK, but there are people there getting vaccines TODAY, how did they get an appointment? There's a number you can call or you can send an e-mail, but the response is (I can't make this up), there will be an app for that next week. AND, this is Long Beach - we have our own health department and have control over our own vaccine distribution. In LA County you can't even get that much info and the news is saying 75 and over can get an appointment starting in February. Meanwhile there are millions of vaccine doses sitting on refrigerated shelves and they are doing heavy ad campaigns to convince people to get vaccinated. That includes a highly publicized press conference where the mayor got vaccinated to show his confidence in it. How about we fix the distribution and you show long lines of willing and eager people getting vaccinated instead - wouldn't that have a much greater effect?

Sadly, this appears to be the norm for most of the nation. The division by zero here is staggering.

To answer your first question, in the last 8 days we are averaging 1 million shots per day in the US. We are up to 13 million shots now. Is it great? No. But it could be much worse. We need to take a step back and realize how difficult this entire process is. From research, to development, to trials and approvals, to production, to delivery, to administration - it is a logistical nightmare and we are here in less than 10 months. Pretty freakin’ amazing!! If we can keep pace at 1 million a day, we will have half the population done by Spring. That is great news!! Folks just need to show a little patience. We will get there. And don’t get bent out of shape if so-and-so group or person gets a shot before another, the important thing is to get the shots in people’s arms. Everyone will get their chance.

As for states, not all states are botching this. Connecticut blew right thru their Phase 1a without issues and are moving on to Phase 1b. My 81 year old parents logged into the portal and have appointments for Thursday to get their first shots.

CA, however, has been an enigma since the beginning of the pandemic. It is a big state with a huge population so much of it is understandable. But it is a blue state with good weather year round making it easier to be outside more and has instituted some of the strictest restrictions and yet continues to have some of the worse Covid numbers. It is not a surprise they are struggling with vaccine distribution.