The Operation Warp Speed (OWS) team announced on January 12 that COVID-19 vaccines can now go out to anyone 65 years or older and to any adult with proven co-morbidities — medical conditions that make them particularly susceptible to the coronavirus and its effects. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar was explicitly clear that nothing has changed from their vaccine playbook released and circulated last September. The plan involved proving two things: that vaccine production was established to be reliable, with the necessary quality control; and that the distribution system (to 16,000 sites) worked. Then larger categories of people could access the vaccine.
Azar said that Moderna has worked extremely closely with their team, making it easy to rely upon the production process; and that Pfizer is coming closer to that level of cooperation, with the assistance of the Defense Production Act. Almost 38 million doses have been produced, and the contracted goal of 200 million doses (from the two companies combined) by March 31 looks good. Further, inoculations are being ramped up, and in 7-10 days the average daily inoculation level will exceed one million — something that Joe Biden swore he would achieve by “moving heaven and earth,” though, as the work has already been done, all he has to do is to move in.
Otherwise, Azar announced three other points: That Federal personnel, if requested, would physically help set up mass vaccination sites in the states; that the four-week ramping up process has proven successful enough to allow the retiring of the reserve of second doses; and that states that left vaccines on the shelf would have their next allocations cut back. Azar recognized that a gap in reporting may be involved here, and he gave states two weeks’ notice to get their vaccination numbers up to speed.
Early media coverage has completely ignored the OWS playbook from September, either out of incompetence or simply to pretend that Biden’s bold announcements have made everyone work faster. The minor issue of the planned termination of the second-dose reserve has been treated as a game-changer, but do the math: 25 million have gone out, of which 9 million have been used. If the 9 million second doses had also been distributed, then instead of 16 million doses in the states awaiting administration, there would be 25 million. The actual story is that the tires have been kicked on the supply and distribution operation, and it works, so it is full speed ahead.
