January 31 According to a report on the US “Politico” news website on the 30th, the United States is stepping up the promotion of coronavirus vaccination in view of the serious situation of the pandemic.
However, more than a week after the new government took office, the White House still failed to determine the whereabouts of about 20 million doses of vaccines that had been distributed to the states.
According to the report, only 2 million of these 20 million doses of vaccine are expected to be untracked due to data submission delays.
Senior government officials pointed out that the unknown vaccines are distributed in the states, and the state government is still responsible for distributing them to medical institutions.
However, government officials have communicated with state officials for a long time to try to find a vaccine that remains unused, but have not drawn clear conclusions.
At the same time, some medical institutions began to hoard supplies because they were worried that some vaccinators would not get a second dose on time, and government officials were trying to persuade these institutions, but “only caused more confusion”.
This status quo has also forced some local CDCs to step in and issue clear guidance on vaccine distribution and use. At present, the White House has allowed states to transfer unused vaccines from some medical programs.
According to the report, officials of the Biden administration have held a series of briefings to track the changes of the pandemic in various states, but these briefings lack many details. Officials have privately revealed that the Biden team still has difficulties in obtaining some basic information and contacting the staff responsible for the pandemic.
Politico pointed out that the new government realized that the vaccine distribution system was very defective after taking office, and once the vaccine was sent to the states, the next tracking task was handed over to the local health department.
The federal government can only receive an official report after the vaccine has actually been vaccinated. “I think they were really caught off guard because of this, and it was a mess,” one government adviser said.
While worrying about the progress of vaccine distribution at present, the White House is also trying to establish a long-term plan to vaccinate the population outside of medical staff and the elderly.
However, government officials admitted that they were shocked by the few remaining federal vaccine reserves after taking office, and the production capacity of vaccine manufacturers did not meet the expectations of the previous government.
U.S. media said that although the daily vaccination rate in the United States has increased, the White House has warned that the availability of vaccines is limited before the summer, which means that the current shortage may continue.
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