Members of Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s vaccine development initiative, admitted Wednesday the vaccine rollout process has been slower than expected.
“We agree that that number [of doses administered] is lower than we hoped for,” said Moncef Slaoui, chief science adviser for OWS. “We know that it should be better, and we’re working hard to make it better.”
Just over 2.6 million doses have been administered to healthcare workers and nursing home residents out of roughly 14 million doses that have been sent to states since Dec. 14. Trump administration officials blamed several factors for the delays, including inclement weather and holidays.
“There were a number of days that were ‘lost’ because of the holidays or snowstorms,” Slaoui told reporters Wednesday.
Gen. Gus Perna, chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed, added that “the Pfizer vaccine came out one week before the Moderna vaccine. Essentially, it’s just 12 days, there’s two holidays, there’s been three major snowstorms.”
Slaoui projected earlier this month that OWS would provide 20 million vaccine doses by the end of the year, followed by 30 million more doses in January and 50 million more in February.
President Trump, meanwhile, put the blame on states for holding up distribution on Wednesday, telling governors to “get moving!”
“The Federal Government has distributed the vaccines to the states. Now it is up to the states to administer,” Trump said.
To date, roughly 19.7 million cases and more than 341,000 deaths due to COVID-19 have been confirmed in the United States. Current case totals are undercounts, given that many infections go undetected and undiagnosed.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom pledged $2 billion of financial incentives to push elementary schools to reopen for in-person learning as early as mid-February, the Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday. The package, which will be submitted to the state Legislature as an adjustment of the state budget, will not immediately open campuses given the mounting hospitalizations due to COVID-19 that have overwhelmed ICUs across the state.
“In-person instruction — there’s just no substitute for it,” Newsom said Wednesday. “That’s why this is so important that we move forward in a phased way, prove that we can do this right and effectively and safely, with an eye on everybody’s health and safety first and foremost.”
Newsom confirmed the first case in the state of the coronavirus variant that has spread rapidly across the United Kingdom. That came a day after Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced the first case in a young male who had no recent travel history. Newsom didn’t specify where the second case was confirmed, saying only that the patient was in Southern California.
California broke the single-day record for new deaths due to COVID-19 on Tuesday, with 442 new fatalities, the Los Angeles Times reported. More than half of those deaths were confirmed in Los Angeles County. Total coronavirus deaths in California have reached 24,987, according to state health data. Los Angeles County, where more than 9,800 deaths due to COVID-19 have been confirmed since the pandemic began, has recorded on average about 109 deaths each day over the past week, the highest mortality rate in the state.
Paramedics and EMTs in Los Angeles County are declining to transport less severely ill patients who they would normally bring to the hospital as a means of reducing strain wherever possible on area hospitals. Dr. Mark Ghaly, the California health and human services secretary, said EMTs “are assessing patients and releasing them to stay at home, because they aren’t quite sick enough to need hospital-level care. … If they did come to the hospital, they may not get the type of attention that they might expect.”
The U.K. authorized the coronavirus vaccine developed by AstraZeneca for public use on Wednesday, with first doses expected to be administered on Monday. The British government ordered 100 million doses of the vaccine, enough to immunize 50 million people.
“This is a moment to celebrate British innovation — not only are we responsible for discovering the first treatment to reduce mortality for COVID-19, this vaccine will be made available to some of the poorest regions of the world at a low cost,” said U.K. Health Secretary Matt Hancock.
West Virginia has completed the first round of coronavirus vaccinations at all 214 long-term care facilities in the state.
Krista Capehart, the director of professional regulatory affairs for the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy which helped coordinate the effort, said the key was using the two weeks between the time the first vaccine was authorized by the Food and Drug Administration and when the first shots could be provided in West Virginia.
“We felt like we could use that time in a better manner if we used connections in the state and opened it up to all of our pharmacies,” Capehart said.
West Virginia coordinated with both chain pharmacies and small, local pharmacies that were already providing regular services to a nursing home or other long-term care facility.
Nearly 40% of people in Canada reported struggling with their mental health, addiction, or alcohol issues in 2020, with the young being the most likely to report such problems. People making under $40,000 were also more likely to report that they had suffered from similar issues.
“It’s one of those situations where you start to see the cracks coming together,” said market research CEO of Ipsos Darrell Bricker, whose firm conducted the poll. “And one of the things that seem to be affecting their lives is the reliance on alcohol addiction and mental health issues, which are more highly correlated with youth than with older people.”
The Chinese government is strictly controlling all research into the origins of the coronavirus currently underway in southern China, an investigation conducted by the Associated Press found. The government is dispersing grant money to scientists affiliated with the military to research bats with the closest known relative of the COVID-19 virus. Before they can publish their findings, a task force managed by China’s Cabinet must approve publication.
