Daily US Times: Public health experts Thursday blamed coronavirus vaccine shortages around the United States in part on the Trump administration’s push to get states to vastly expand their vaccination drives to reach the country’s estimated 54 million people age 65 and over.
State officials said, the push that began over a week ago has not been accompanied by enough vaccine doses to meet demand, leading to confusion and frustration and limiting states’ ability to attack the outbreak that has killed over 400,000 Americans.
Over the past few days, authorities in California, Florida, Ohio, West Virginia and Hawaii warned of vaccine shortages. New York City began postponing or canceling shots or stopped making new appointments because of the shortages, which newly sworn President Joe Biden has vowed to turn around. The top health official of Florida said the state would deal with the scarcity by restricting vaccines to state residents.
Dr. Eric Topol, head of the Scripps Research Translational Institute, said, “The vaccine rollout so far has been “a major disappointment”.
Problems started with the now former Trump administration’s “fatal mistake” of not ordering enough vaccine, which was then snapped up by other countries, Topol said.
He said, opening the line to senior citizens set people up for disappointment because there was not enough vaccine.
The Trump administration also left crucial planning to the states and did not provide the necessary funding.
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