Covid vaccine: Trump administration tells states to roll out first dose to over-65s

Just over 8.9 million Americans have received the coronavirus vaccine

The Trump administration has altered its Covid-19 vaccine recommendations, asking states to distribute the first dose of the jab to those who are aged 65 years or older. 

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said states have been “too narrowly focused” in their vaccine distribution, which has caused the rollout to go slower than initially expected. 

States have now been encouraged to vaccinate anyone who is aged 65 years and over, as well as those under 65 who have underlying health conditions that could put them at risk for contracting severe symptoms from Covid-19. This initiative would mean states would no longer hold onto the second dose for those who received the first. 

But Mr Azar said the change should not jeopardise the immunisation of people who already received the first dose, based on how fast the federal government anticipated manufacturing the vaccine would continue. 

“We now believe that our manufacturing is predictable enough that we can ensure second doses are available for people from ongoing production,” Mr Azar told ABC’s Good Morning America on Tuesday. 

The federal government left it up to the states to determine how the vaccines would be distributed to residents. Many states have followed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, which recommend that healthcare workers and those living in long-term care facilities are the first to receive a vaccine. 

But there have been delays in distributing the vaccine as quickly as expected, which has caused frustration among the public. 

The federal government, led by Operation Warp Speed, had distributed more than 25.4 million doses to states as of Monday, according to the CDC vaccine tracker. But just over 8.9 million Americans have so far received the vaccine. 

Initially, it was anticipated that 20 million would receive a coronavirus vaccine by the end of 2020, but the country fell far short of that goal. 

Expanding the pool of people who could receive the first dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, which have both received emergency use authorisation from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), was an effort to speed up the vaccine distribution process. 

This recommendation would require states to open up other places outside of hospitals, such as community centres and local clinics, to vaccinate people. 

“We’ve already distributed more vaccine than we have healthcare workers and people in nursing homes,” Mr Azar said. “We’ve got to get to more channels of administration. We’ve got to get it to pharmacies, get it to community health centres.”

Pfizer’s vaccine requires for recipients to receive the second dose of the vaccine three weeks after the first dose. Moderna requires the second dose to be administered four weeks after the first dose. The efficacy of these vaccines with just one dose against the novel virus is still being determined. 

The federal government has been accused of leaving states on their own to handle vaccination campaigns, without providing assistance. But Mr Azar said the government intended to send teams to states to help with these mass vaccination efforts. 

President-elect Joe Biden announced he would be giving a speech on Thursday about  how his administration intends to address vaccine rollout issues across the country. 

Pressure on vaccine distribution comes at a time when the novel virus has surged in the US. More than 376,000 people have died from coronavirus since the start of the pandemic, according to Johns Hopkins University.