COVID-19 vaccine distribution changes draw concern at local level

HHS officials on Tuesday ordered a shift in the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination campaign, changes that some say will make more vaccine available but not necessarily rev up the rollout. States have been told to begin immunizing people aged 65 years and older as well as individuals with underlying health problems weeks earlier than planned. To provide supply for those populations, the government will release doses that it had been keeping in reserve for booster injections. Observers worry that state and local health departments, already overwhelmed by a winter surge in COVID cases, will buckle under the pressure to administer more vaccine more quickly. Help could be on the way via an estimated $8 million in vaccination funding included in a stimulus bill, but delivery of those dollars is uncertain. Also frustrating is Washington’s plan to change in 2 weeks how it allocates doses, which threatens to confuse planning with hospitals and health officials unsure when and how much vaccine they should expect. Taken together, these scenarios—along with logistical snarls seen in states that began vaccinating older adults earlier than the rest of the country—has some worried that the new distribution scheme could do more harm than good.