New York Times: America has no plan for vaccinating millions of Americans
In a comment, the New York Times is tough on the US government’s vaccination policy. Two weeks ago, the country started the largest vaccination campaign in US history – but the way things have gone so far has been disappointing. Countless vaccine doses will pass their expiration dates before they can be injected – while at the same time the number of corona deaths in the country is increasing and the crematoria are overloaded with the many bodies.
The so-called “Operation Warp Speed” is far from having reached the target of 20 million vaccinated by the end of 2020. Only 14 million vaccine doses have been produced and distributed to clinics and health centers across the country – and estimated three million people had been vaccinated. The remaining life-saving vaccines were stored in freezers, where several million of them would likely pass their expiration dates before they could be used.
That is an astonishing failure, the authors state. The usual explanation is here again: poor coordination of government work, combined with insufficient financial and logistical support in the local states, led to a chain of avoidable errors and unnecessary delays. So everything as usual.
The vaccine should be the solution. But it creates new problems – and reveals old shortcomings. The root of the problem is that the government has long prioritized medicine / drugs / vaccines – neglecting the public health system. It is much easier to inspire people with stories about miracle substances that are produced in record time than with the need to organize cold chains, build vaccination clinics and train doctors and nurses accordingly. – But that is exactly what it would take to stop the epidemic. (Tsp)
