By Victoria Knight
Wednesday, January 20, 2021 (Kaiser News) – This story also ran on PolitiFact. It can be republished for free.
It is in the nature of presidential candidates and new presidents to promise big things. Just months after his inauguration in 1961, President John F. Kennedy vowed to send a man to the moon by the end of the decade. That promise has been kept, but many others have not, such as Bill Clinton’s promise to provide universal health coverage and President George HW Bush’s hopeful guarantee that no new taxes will be raised.
Now, during a once-only pandemic in a century, new President Joe Biden has promised to get 100 million Covid-19 vaccinations in his first 100 days in office.
“This team will help ensure that at least 100 million covid shots get into the arms of the American people in the first 100 days,” Biden said during a December 8 press conference that featured key members of his health team.
When the Biden team was first asked about their promise, the president-elect said 50 million people would receive their two-dose therapy. The in-depth administration has since updated this plan to state that vaccine doses will be released as soon as they are available, rather than withhold some of that supply for second doses.
Either way, Biden could struggle to hit that $ 100 million mark.
“I think it’s an achievable goal. I think it’s going to be a big challenge, ”said Claire Hannan, executive director of the Association of Immunization Managers.
While a pace of 1 million doses a day is “slightly more than what we already do,” a much higher vaccination rate will be needed to contain the pandemic, said Larry Levitt, executive vice president of health policy at KFF. (KHN is an editorially independent program of the KFF.) “The Biden government plans to streamline vaccine distribution, but rapidly increase supply” could be a difficult task.
Under the Trump administration, vaccine use was much slower than Biden’s plan. The rollout began more than a month ago, on December 14th. Since then, 12 million shots have been fired and 31 million doses shipped, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s vaccine tracker.
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This sluggishness has been attributed to a lack of communication between the federal government and state and local health departments, insufficient funding for large-scale vaccination efforts, and confusing federal guidelines on vaccine distribution.
The same problems could plague the Biden administration, experts said.
States are still unsure of how much vaccine they will get and whether there will be adequate supplies, said Dr. Marcus Plescia, Chief Medical Officer of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, which represents state health authorities.
“We have received little information on the amount of vaccines states will receive in the near future, and we feel that for the first 100 days of the Biden administration, 1 million doses may not be available per day,” Plescia said . “Or at least not in the early stages of the 100 days.”
Another challenge was the lack of funding. The health authorities have had to start vaccination campaigns, run test centers and conduct contact tracing measures with budgets that have been critically underfunded for years.
“States have to pay for the systems in place, staff identification, training, staffing, people tracking, and information campaigns – all of the things that go into getting a shot in the arm,” said Jennifer Kates , Director of Global Health and HIV Policy at KFF. “You have to build an unprecedented mass vaccination program on shaky foundations.”
The latest covid incentive law, which went into effect in December, provides the CDC with nearly $ 9 billion in funding for vaccination efforts. About $ 4.5 billion is set to go to states, territories, and tribal organizations, and $ 3 billion of that is expected to arrive soon.
However, it is not clear if the amount of funding can support mass vaccination campaigns when more groups are eligible for the vaccine.
Biden released a $ 1.9 trillion plan last week to address Covid and the weak economy. It includes $ 160 billion to create national vaccination and testing programs, but also provides $ 1,400 in funding for stimulus payments to individuals, state and local government aid, the expansion of unemployment insurance, and financial assistance to help reopen schools safely .
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Although it took Congress nearly eight months to pass the final bill after eight Republican objections to the cost, Biden seems optimistic that he will get some Republicans on board for his plan. But it is not yet clear whether that will work.
The question also arises of whether the impeachment process against outgoing President Donald Trump will stand in the way of Biden’s legislative priorities.
In addition, states have complained about a lack of guidance and confusing instructions as to which groups should be given priority status for vaccination, an issue that the Biden government needs to address.
On December 3, the CDC recommended that health workers, residents of long-term care facilities, those aged 75 and over, and key frontline workers should be vaccinated first. But on January 12, the CDC changed course and recommended that everyone over 65 should be vaccinated. In a speech Biden made last week about his vaccination schedule, he said he would follow the CDC’s recommendation to give priority to those over 65.
Outgoing Secretary for Health and Human Services Alex Azar said Jan. 12 that states that have been the fastest to postpone vaccine supplies would have priority to get more shipments. It is not yet known whether the Biden government CDC will adhere to these guidelines. Critics said it might make vaccine distribution less fair.
In general, with a strong vision and clear communication, the acquisition will be key to accelerating vaccine distribution, Hannan said.
“Everyone needs to understand what the goal is and how it will work,” she said.
One of Biden’s challenges will be to dispel expectations that the vaccine is all that is needed to end the pandemic. There are more cases across the country than ever before, and in many places officials cannot control the spread.
Public health experts said Biden needs to step up efforts to step up testing across the country, as he has suggested by promising to set up a national pandemic testing panel.
With so much focus on vaccine distribution, it’s important not to lose that part of the equation. Right now, “everything is all over the world,” Kates said, adding that the federal government needs a “keen sense” of who is and who is not being tested in different areas in order to “fix public health capacity “.
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