“The U.S. government is considering injecting some people with half the dose of Moderna vaccine to achieve rapid vaccination. On January 3rd local time, Reuters quoted U.S. federal government officials as saying that the news was released.
The rising number of confirmed cases, the medical status quo on the verge of collapse in many places, the slow pace of COVID-19 vaccination in states…
For the current United States, it seems that it will take a long time to usher in the “light at the end of darkness”.
In order to speed up, the U.S. government wants to “halve” the dose of the vaccine?
On January 3 local time, Monsef Slavy, head of the White House’s coronavirus vaccine and chief adviser of the U.S. coronavirus vaccine program Operation Warp Speed, said that the federal government is working with Moderna and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on the above.
It is envisaged that communication will ultimately be up to the FDA to decide whether to advance the above plan.
In addition, he also claimed: “Accurring from the clinical trial data provided by Moderna, half of the dose given to people between the ages of 18 and 55 can produce the ‘the same immune response’ as the full dose, which can double the number of vaccinations under the existing vaccine stock. “
In response, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quickly issued an official statement rejecting the proposal.
The FDA said that this practice is not mature and may pose unpredictable risks to public health.
Some netizens also questioned: “The proposal to halve the dose is based on the ongoing second phase of research. However, the immune response is not exactly equal to the efficacy of the vaccine, and the current sample size is very small.
Also, if 50 μg injections would be enough, why did they choose 100 μg for the full dose of the Phase III clinical trial?”
Status of Inoculation: Appointment System Collapse, People Queuing Up All Night…
Judging from the current pandemic situation in the United States, it is difficult to keep up with the growth rate of confirmed cases.
Many parts of the United States are also in “chaotic” because of vaccination: hundreds of elderly people queued up outdoors all night in the cold wind to vaccinate; vaccination reservation websites in some areas crashed directly; others tried to make hundreds of consultation calls but could not get through; and some people were shopping in supermarkets. At that time, he was vaccinated in a muddle.
In Florida, the local “first come, first served” principle is applied to groups over 65 years old. In many places, there continues to be elderly people queuing up all night to wait for vaccination.
Among the queues even elderly people over 90 years old. They also carry blankets, sleeping bags, etc. due to the low temperature at night.
According to American media reports, people begin to queue up for vaccination the next day at 14:00 a. Generally, the vaccines that can be vaccinated on the same day are scheduled to be completed by 7 a.m., and the opening time of the vaccination site is 9:00 a.m.
From January 4, vaccination appointments began in some parts of the United States.
However, due to the large number of appointments, most of the 4th, the reservation website system services in some areas were in a state of collapse, and the consultation phone number could not be reached.
The Washington Post reported that Barbara Shreven, a 71-year-old retired librarian living in Florida, called the local health department and hospital 184 times on January 4 to consult on vaccination. Only one connection was connected, but it was quickly disconnected.
“[The U.S. government] had at least six months to prepare, and could have come up with a better way to do it, it shouldn’t have been so hard,” she said.
Some people can’t get the vaccine, but others are accidentally vaccinated. AFP reported on the 4th that a student named David McMillan and friend in Washington, D.C., were recently vaccinated against the coronavirus by staff of the supermarket pharmacy while shopping in Washington. At present, the United States gives priority to vaccination of medical personnel and elderly people in nursing homes. Macmillan said that he and his friends were vaccinated because medical workers did not go to the vaccination as agreed.
Moderna’s vaccine needs to be stored at ultra-low temperatures, and once removed from the refrigeration equipment and the lid is punctured, it will quickly deteriorate.
Why does “action warp” become “slow motion”
In the face of criticism that vaccination is slower than expected and distribution chaos, US President Trump posted an article on social platforms to “blame” state governments: the federal government has shipped the vaccine to the states, and now the states are responsible for vaccine distribution and vaccination.
Industry insiders pointed out that transportation is only the easiest step in the vaccination process, and distribution of vaccination is the most difficult part. Due to the lack of coordinated organizations of the federal government, the vaccination work in the United States is basically in a state of leaderlessness and fragmentation.
Ashish Jha, dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, believes that the current government’s arrangement is unreasonable. To leave local health officials and hospitals responsible for vaccination is to entrusting the most difficult work to the least resourced and powerless group.
Local health departments in the United States told the U.S. media that they should not only manage vaccination, but also be responsible for a series of pandemic prevention work such as COVID-19 testing and contact tracing.
The health department has long been overstretched and has to recruit temporary replacements.
Some local hospitals also said that the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19 has soared, and hospitals are busy with treatment and have no time to take care of vaccination.
On the one hand, there are confirmed cases that need to be quarantined and treated, and on the other hand, there are high-risk groups who need to be vaccinated.
In the absence of the overall coordination of the federal government, the primary health care workers in the United States are exhausted.
In order to distribute the vaccine as soon as possible, some grassroots workers in the United States even need to find their own way. In Michigan, every five days, doctor Richard Bates travels more than 200 kilometers in his car to take dozens of doses of vaccines to township hospitals in the northern part of the state, one way takes three hours.
“I drove past a lot of small towns and I was wondering how we would get so many people vaccinated,” Bates told the media.
At present, the widely distributed coronavirus vaccine in the United States must be stored at ultra-low temperatures of -75 °C.
Due to the problem of the decentralized health care system, some small hospitals and institutions in the United States not only lack ultra-cryogenic refrigerators that can store vaccines, but also lack staff with vaccination licenses.
In addition, the trust of the American people in vaccines is also an important factor affecting vaccination programs.
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has said that about 60% of nursing home workers in the state refuse to be vaccinated.
The CEO of the Florida Safety Net Hospital Alliance also said that in Florida, some hospital workers refused to be vaccinated due to safety concerns.
Many experts point out that all the issues about COVID-19 have been extremely politicized in the United States, and the process of promoting vaccine development and production by the U.S. government is “unbelievably fast” and the chaos in the distribution and vaccination process have greatly affected people’s trust in vaccines.
Slow vaccination progress “disaster” is foreseeable
According to the data of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, by the end of December 2020, only about 2.8 million Americans had been vaccinated against the first dose of the novel coronavirus vaccine, far below the federal government’s previous target of 20 million doses.
According to the New York Times, the number of coronavirus vaccines distributed across the United States has exceeded 14 million doses, but the current use rate is only 20%.
Experts believe that at this rate, it will take 10 years to cover 80% of the population needed for herd immunization.
Despite the obstacles to vaccine distribution, the novel coronavirus is still coming.
According to Johns Hopkins University in the United States, as of 16:22 Eastern Time on the 4th, the number of confirmed COVID-19 infections in the United States exceeded 20.75 million, and the death toll reached 352,858.
In the past 24 hours, 18334 new cases have been diagnosed and 1,581 new deaths have been reported.
The pandemic is so turbulent and has not stopped the American people from traveling.
According to the data of the U.S. Transportation Security Administration, although the number of air travel has dropped significantly compared with previous years, on January 2, the U.S. airport ushered in the busiest day since the outbreak, with more than 1.19 million passengers passing the security check.
Since December 18, 2020, more than 16.3 million people in the United States have passed airport security.
In response, Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, predicts that the number of hospitalizations and deaths due to the novel coronavirus in the United States may rise in the next week to two. He said: “It’s terrible, unfortunately, but it’s predictable. “
Van Kelkhofer, technical director of the WHO emergency project, also said that despite the introduction of a coronavirus vaccine, 2021 will be difficult. Because the vaccine will not work soon, and the vaccination speed is slower than people hope.
