Race to vaccinate millions across the U.S. off to a slow, messy start
Officials blame logistical and financial hurdles.
By BOBBY CAINA CALVAN and MICHAEL KUNZELMANAssociated Press
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U.S. Air Force Veteran Robert Aucoin, 78, receives a COVID-19 vaccine dose at the Soldiers Home in Holyoke, Mass., on Tuesday. Hoang Leon Nguyen/The Republican via Associated Press
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. Terry Beth Hadler was so eager to get a lifesaving COVID-19 vaccination that the 69-year-old piano teacher stood in line overnight in a parking lot with hundreds of other senior citizens.
She wouldn’t do it again.
Hadler said that she waited 14 hours and that a brawl nearly erupted before dawn on Tuesday when people cut in line outside the library in Bonita Springs, Florida, where officials were offering shots on a first-come, first-served basis to those 65 or older.
Local funding crisis threatens U.S. vaccine rollout By Carl O Donnell and Rebecca Spalding
FILE PHOTO: Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus disease (COVID-19) vaccination in New York
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Seattle public health officials have so little COVID-19 funding on hand they worry they will have to shut down some virus testing sites as they mount a campaign to dose their 2.3 million residents with Pfizer Inc’s and Moderna Inc’s vaccines.
King County, which represents greater Seattle, has $14 million of COVID-19 funding for 2021, roughly enough to fund its operations for a single month, and a fraction of the $87 million emergency COVID-19 aid it received in 2020, said Ingrid Ulrey, the public health policy director for King County.
| Updated December 31, 2020
Trump administration officials were saying just a few weeks ago that 20 million Americans could be vaccinated against COVID-19 by year’s end. Now here we are, and only 2.1 million people have gotten shots, according to the latest figures from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Even allowing for a lag in the reporting of data, the final numbers for 2020 will be well short of the administration’s goal, as Operation Warp Speed officials have acknowledged.
The question going forward is what the failure represents. Is it nothing more than the predictable, ultimately temporary early difficulties that come with such a complex and massive undertaking or a sign that vaccine distribution is about to become a major failure, just like testing and the distribution of personal protective equipment were earlier in the pandemic?
Published Thursday, December 31, 2020 7:27AM EST NEW YORK, Dec 31 (Reuters) Seattle public health officials have so little COVID-19 funding on hand they worry they will have to shut down some virus testing sites as they mount a campaign to dose their 2.3 million residents with Pfizer Inc s and Moderna Inc s vaccines. King County, which represents greater Seattle, has $14 million of COVID-19 funding for 2021, roughly what it spends in a month to run public testing sites and other services, and a fraction of the $87 million emergency COVID-19 aid it received in 2020, said Ingrid Ulrey, the public health policy director for King County.