Nursing Home Vaccinations May Be Delayed

Dec. 14, 2020 — The federal government is informing teams that are offering the Pfizer coronavirus injection to wait up until later on this month to inoculate individuals in long-lasting treatment centers, in spite of a CDC referral that they be amongst the very first to obtain the injection, CBS News reported.

CBS News claimed it acquired 2 Operation Warp Speed records informing carriers that the “earliest the program can turn on is Dec 21st.” CBS News claimed the records were created by the Department of Health and also Human Services with support from CVS and also Walgreens, the drug store chains in charge of immunizing long-lasting treatment center locals.

About 2.9 million dosages of the injection delivered from storehouses on Sunday, and also the very first inoculations are being offered today. That indicates the injection would certainly be offered today for usage in assisted living facility, where the death price for COVID-19 is high.

U.S. Health and also Human Services Secretary Alex Azar showed up Sunday on Face the Nation and also was inquired about timing for inoculations. CBS News claimed it acquired the records after the program broadcast.

In the meeting, CBS’s Margaret Brennan claimed CVS claimed its employees would certainly not offer assisted living facility inoculations up until Dec. 21, “because the Trump administration told them to wait until that date. Why is the Trump administration asking nursing homes to wait?”

“We’re not actually asking the nursing homes to wait,” Azar responded. “And we were able to have a really good discussion with CVS leadership about this misunderstanding that they had at the president’s vaccine distribution summit. So I think we’ve gotten that all straightened out with them. And we’ll be getting CVS and Walgreens vaccinating our nursing home people. A hundred — almost 100% of our nursing homes have signed up with that program for a turnkey vaccination operation.”

Azar claimed assisted living facility inoculations can begin “any day,” and also all assisted living facility locals can be immunized by Christmas.

But 2 resources have actually verified the hold-up.

Scott Gottlieb, MD, that was FDA commissioner in the Trump management from 2017 to 2019, claimed the hold-up was brought on by the requirement for assisted living facility to acquire approval from locals or their households.

“It’s an extremely pricey hold-up,” he claimed on Face the Nation. “There [are] 50,000 new infections in nursing homes every week right now, probably more than that. And we know 20% of people in the nursing homes who are infected will succumb to the infection. So, there’s a lot of death happening in these nursing homes.”

Gottlieb, that’s on Pfizer’s board of supervisors, claimed he approximated it would certainly take around a week to obtain approval from the individuals and also concerning 3 weeks overall for CVS and also Walgreens to inoculate assisted living facility locals.

He claimed he didn’t understand why Operation Warp Speed, the public-private program to rapidly develop and also disperse a COVID-19 injection, didn’t obtain approval beforehand.

Robert Garrett, the Chief Executive Officer of the New Jersey health center system Hackensack Meridian Health, informed Face the Nation the business was informed assisted living facility inoculations would certainly begin Dec. 21.

“I did hear the secretary’s interview, but the latest information I have from CVS and Walgreens is that they would start on the week of the 21st,” Garrett claimed.

The states are establishing concerns on that reaches get the injection, yet the CDC’s Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) recommended that healthcare employees and also locals of assisted living facility and also various other household treatment centers need to be initially in line.