Alaska and Mississippi have already opened up the vaccine to everyone age 16 or older, regardless of risk factors. Other states — including Colorado, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan, Montana, Ohio and Utah — are aiming to follow suit this month or next.
A recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist College poll found that more than three in five Americans age 75 and up have already been vaccinated. But divisions remain: Nearly half of all respondents who reported having voted to re-elect Donald Trump in November said they wouldn’t get a vaccine after it became available.
Vaccine distribution is ultimately up to the states, but Biden has made a point of grabbing the bull by the horns — positioning the federal government as a kind of air traffic controller for the vaccine rollout.
The $1.9 trillion relief package that he signed last week has a lot to do with that, as it includes large allotments for vaccine distribution and for state and local governments. I caught up with Sheryl Gay Stolberg, a Washington correspondent covering health policy, for a rundown on where things stand — and what we know (and what we don’t) about the Biden administration’s plans.
The relief bill includes billions for vaccine distribution and coronavirus testing, and hundreds of billions for school districts and state and local governments. Is that funding tied to certain benchmarks? How is the administration using this funding to help guide the distribution of vaccines nationally?
Actually, I don’t think we know what benchmarks the Biden administration is using. I asked what metrics they would use to judge the success of their plan to ramp up coronavirus screening testing in schools. I did not get a clear answer.
States are handling vaccine distribution in widely divergent ways. Most are making vaccines available to residents gradually, depending on their age and other risk factors, but in some states — and certain counties in other states — shots are now available to all adults. Where do health experts, both at the C.D.C. and elsewhere, land on this? Is this worrisome to epidemiologists, or are they saying we’re at a point where it makes sense for vaccines to be openly available?
The bottom line from health experts is this: It is important for as many people as possible to get vaccinated as quickly as possible. Most states are beyond vaccinating the highest priority groups, like health care workers or people who live in nursing homes, and are offering the vaccine at least to essential workers. But as you note, some states have lowered the age of eligibility while others have not.
Vaccination in the United States has always been the province of the states, and the guidance put out by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is just that — guidance. That said, President Biden has ordered all states to make all adults eligible for the vaccine no later than May 1.
As the vaccine supply grows, we are going to soon see a reversal: Instead of having too little vaccine for a public that is clamoring for it, we will have more than enough and the problem will be getting people who don’t want it to take it.
Biden said last week that the federal government would secure another 100 million doses of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson vaccine. How soon will those vaccines be available? Are we nearing a point where supply more or less equals demand?
Those doses are not likely to be available until the second half of this year. The White House envisions that they would be available to vaccinate children, or for booster doses, or to reformulate vaccines to combat emerging variants.
That said, we are indeed nearing — or at least heading toward — a point where supply equals demand. The administration expects to have enough vaccine on hand to vaccinate every adult American by the end of May.
Public opinion polls have shown that there is stubborn reluctance to take the vaccine among certain demographics in the country — particularly Republican men, about half of whom said in a recent survey that they wouldn’t take a vaccine even if it became available. Does this worry public officials, and are leaders taking steps to address that reluctance?
Vaccine hesitancy is very worrisome to public health officials. Opposition to vaccination could slow the campaign to contain the virus and keep it from spreading, which would in turn set back efforts to revive the economy and get life back to some semblance of normal. And health officials know that there is not a one-size-fits-all solution; different groups are hesitant for different reasons, and public education campaigns need to be tailored to address individuals’ concerns.
With respect to Republicans, as our colleagues Annie Karni and Zolan Kanno-Youngs recently reported, the White House faces a delicate task. Former President Donald Trump spent months telling people the virus was a hoax, and many of his followers do not want to be vaccinated (although both he and his wife, Melania, were vaccinated before leaving the White House).
Trump was noticeably absent from a recent public service announcement that featured the four other living former presidents urging Americans to get the vaccine. But in a televised interview on Tuesday, he publicly endorsed the inoculation, telling his supporters, “I would recommend it.” It remains an open question how much of an impact this will have. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is working with a bipartisan group called the Covid Collaborative, which is working to address vaccine hesitancy among conservatives.
The New York Times