The federal government has not given any indication that it has a plan in place for allocating doses of a coronavirus vaccine when it is approved, a situation that health-policy experts say will create widespread confusion and worry about which sectors of the population will be immunized first.
“The rollout as doses become available has to be forecasted to the public so that they have a clear understanding of a phased approach by which vaccination is going to become available, from very targeted groups to the wider population,” said Dr. Monica Schoch-Spana, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security.
President Trump and public health officials have laid out or promised detailed plans for how the first doses of the coronavirus vaccine will be allocated and who will get the first round of shots. Schoch-Spana argued that the public needs to know how the vaccine will be phased in and when they will receive protection from the coronavirus in order to feel safe returning to normal life.
“That’s a fundamental sort of forecasting for people. The larger process and where they and their family and other loved ones fit in is going to be important,” Schoch-Spana told the Washington Examiner.
Government health officials did not respond to requests for more explanation of the administration’s plans for allocating doses of the vaccine. So far, the only detail the administration has made clear to the public is that the vaccine will be free of charge and that there will be enough doses for the entire United States population. However, officials have not said which professions have the most urgent need or when they will have access to the injections. For instance, healthcare providers and nursing home residents may be entitled to receive a vaccine first. Teachers and school staff who are also at risk of getting sick may also merit getting early access to a vaccine.
The federal government must also include in its forecast to the public its plans to deliver a coronavirus vaccine to minority groups that are more at risk of serious illness, Schoch-Spana said. She added that vaccinations should be made available to people in places where they spend much of their time, such as houses of worship, rather than solely in hospitals and urgent-care clinics.
“We have to build out platforms for reaching adults more readily. That means involving nontraditional sites,” Schoch-Spana said. “That’s where we need to build out the more innovative platforms the most. We want to find familiar places that feel safe for people. So that may be their local church.”
Members of the Trump administration will also have to gain the trust of illegal immigrants, who, like legal residents, can be vectors of the coronavirus. Kirsten Axelsen, a visiting fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who focuses on pharmaceutical drug policy, told the Washington Examiner that groups of illegal immigrants will be more amenable to receiving the vaccine in nongovernmental settings.
“I think we need to be thinking about what policy is not only going to make access to a vaccine but also make people feel comfortable who might be afraid of raising their hand or showing up at an official government location,” Axelsen said. “So, using more informal networks in places where we know those people are gathering that aren’t government institutions.”
The Trump administration faces a difficult task in gaining the public’s trust in a vaccine that will have come to market in record time. One in 5 people in the U.S. said they would refuse a coronavirus vaccine, and 31% were uncertain about it, according to new polling from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research. This means only half of the public would get the vaccine when it comes out.
The federal government’s difficulty in winning trust from the public that the first vaccine is safe and effective, even with approval from the Food and Drug Administration, will be compounded by confusion about which sectors of the population get access to the first doses.
Building a kind of system in which the government can effectively communicate its strategy with the public will help deal with future health crises, Schoch-Spana said.
“The investments we make in our ability to meet communities of color who are hesitant right now — we can work with them now that that trust can be carried over into future activities,” Schoch-Spana said. “That’s why this vaccination rollout is important. It’s important for pandemic management, and it’s very important for long-term vaccination success in the United States.”
The Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of Defense have inked several billion-dollar deals with biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies that are developing vaccines for COVID-19. Most recently, the federal government struck a massive deal of $1.5 billion with Moderna for 100 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine currently in development. The largest contract between government agencies and vaccine manufacturers was signed just two weeks ago with pharmaceutical companies GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi Pasteur, valued at $2.1 billion.
More than 5.2 million coronavirus infections have been confirmed in the U.S., according to data from Johns Hopkins University. So far, more than 166,000 people have died.
