Vaccine Reserves the White House Released This Week Don't Exist

[spanone]

On Tuesday, the Trump administration announced that it was going to release the supply of COVID-19 vaccine doses it was holding in reserve to be used as second shots, days after President-elect Joe Biden announced his plan to do the same. But there is no reserve anymore, the Washington Post reported Friday: The Trump administration’s Operation Warp Speed in charge of vaccine production had already begun shipping out that stockpile of second doses since the end of December.

The Post story is but the latest scandal in the thus-far disastrous U.S. rollout of COVID-19 vaccines — and it wasn’t the only damning report to come out on Friday regarding the Trump administration’s mishandling of the rollout. According to The Wall Street Journal, Operation Warp Speed leaders waited two months to move forward on a CDC plan to start helping states prepare for the mass vaccination campaign.

Regarding the depleted vaccine stockpile, the Post didn’t report any details about why the Trump administration made its (apparently bullshit) announcement on Tuesday, but the article did note the effect:

Now, health officials across the country who had anticipated their extremely limited vaccine supply as much as doubling beginning next week are confronting the reality that their allocations will not immediately increase, dashing hopes of dramatically expanding access for millions of elderly people and those with high-risk medical conditions. Health officials in some cities and states were informed in recent days about the reality of the situation, while others are still in the dark.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/01/vaccine-reserves-white-house-released-dont-exist-report.html

[Wicked Blue]

1. This IS a scandal

I hope a House subcommittee hauls in the departing Alex Azar to face some heavy questioning.

[spanone]

2. Where did they go?

WTF?

Outgoing Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar originally opposed the Biden plan to release the supposed stockpile to be used as first doses, commenting that the policy change was shortsighted and could mean Americans who had already received their first dose of one of the two-dose vaccines would not be able to get their second dose on time. Then, a few days later, Azar announced that the Trump administration would go ahead and do that before Biden was even in office, yet failed to acknowledge that it already had. And as the Post report highlights, the omission is particularly galling since Azar and CDC director Robert Redfield also announced and promoted a new federal guidance greatly expanding who should be eligible to receive the vaccine first:

[Azar] did not say the original policy had already been phased out, or that the stockpile had been exhausted. Signaling to states that they would soon see expanded supply, he also urged them to begin vaccinating adults 65 and older and those under 64 with a high-risk medical condition. Officials in some states embraced that directive, while others said suddenly putting hundreds of thousands of additional people at the front of the line would overwhelm their capacity.

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/01/vaccine-reserves-white-house-released-dont-exist-report.html

[Wicked Blue]

3. Russia, Saudi Arabia?

The highest bidder

[dweller]

4. There should be records

“had already begun shipping out that stockpile of second doses since the end of December.”

Where they were shipped to, and where they arrived ...

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