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Showing Original Post only (View all)Biden admin remakes vaccine strategy after mass vaccination sites fizzle [View all]
Source: Politico
The Biden administration is rethinking a costly system of government-run mass vaccination sites after data revealed the program is lagging well behind a much cheaper federal effort to distribute doses via retail pharmacies.
The government has shipped millions of doses to the 21 mass vaccination hubs, or pilot community centers, in states such as California, Florida, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts and Texas. The hubs are part of a $4 billion federal system that funds more than 1,000 smaller vaccination locations across the country and provides other vaccination support such as supplies to states across the country. The Federal Emergency Management Agency did not respond to repeated questions about how much the pilot sites cost.
Despite the money the federal government has spent on the mass-vaccination pilot sites, they are administering just a fraction of the shots given across the country each day. Federal data show the retail pharmacy program which has signed up 21 chains and 17,000 stores can reach far more Americans in a shorter time, according to four senior officials with direct knowledge of the matter. The bottom line, those sources said, is that more Americans seem to be willing to walk to their local pharmacist to get the vaccine than to travel to a federal vaccination site for the shot.
That represents a shift in strategy for the Biden administration, which touted the hubs as a powerful tool to rapidly accelerate the nations vaccine rollout and a symbol of the presidents push to give the federal government a larger role in the pandemic response. But FEMA data obtained by POLITICO make clear that the pharmacy sites are far outpacing the stadiums, arenas and convention centers enlisted as mass vaccination sites.
The government has shipped millions of doses to the 21 mass vaccination hubs, or pilot community centers, in states such as California, Florida, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts and Texas. The hubs are part of a $4 billion federal system that funds more than 1,000 smaller vaccination locations across the country and provides other vaccination support such as supplies to states across the country. The Federal Emergency Management Agency did not respond to repeated questions about how much the pilot sites cost.
Despite the money the federal government has spent on the mass-vaccination pilot sites, they are administering just a fraction of the shots given across the country each day. Federal data show the retail pharmacy program which has signed up 21 chains and 17,000 stores can reach far more Americans in a shorter time, according to four senior officials with direct knowledge of the matter. The bottom line, those sources said, is that more Americans seem to be willing to walk to their local pharmacist to get the vaccine than to travel to a federal vaccination site for the shot.
That represents a shift in strategy for the Biden administration, which touted the hubs as a powerful tool to rapidly accelerate the nations vaccine rollout and a symbol of the presidents push to give the federal government a larger role in the pandemic response. But FEMA data obtained by POLITICO make clear that the pharmacy sites are far outpacing the stadiums, arenas and convention centers enlisted as mass vaccination sites.
Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2021/03/29/covid-vaccine-sites-478233
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Biden admin remakes vaccine strategy after mass vaccination sites fizzle [View all]
brooklynite
Mar 2021
OP
plus sometimes when the boat is sinking you need to run the pumps AND bail by hand. Multiple
ZonkerHarris
Mar 2021
#31
What a misleading headline. The mass sites didn't "fizzle", they are alive and well. The Biden
JohnSJ
Mar 2021
#6
I know. We have a good number of mass vaccination places here in California. We also have
JohnSJ
Mar 2021
#13
There are just 2 FEMA sites in CA, 1 in Alameda and 1 in LA. The LA one is closing in two weeks.
winstars
Mar 2021
#27
All I know is the Bay Area has a bunch of mass vaccination centers setup since February
JohnSJ
Mar 2021
#37
My 87 year old mother got hers at a giant county site. Went so darn smoothly. it was great
ZonkerHarris
Mar 2021
#30
Locally in South Dakota, Walmart is one of the pharmacies you can get vaccinated at...
IthinkThereforeIAM
Mar 2021
#16
In New York, pharmacies were just for 65+. If you qualified for some other reason...
thesquanderer
Mar 2021
#22
without the Federal sites Biden would have missed his 100 million shot projections. It's the combina
ZonkerHarris
Mar 2021
#26
I got my first shot at a local CVS pharamcy.... It was a symphony in motion....
getagrip_already
Mar 2021
#28
I was under the impression(false??) that the age eligibility at Federal sites were set by the feds
retread
Mar 2021
#44
The FEMA site in Los Angeles has been VERY successful, giving 7,500 shots daily.
SunSeeker
Mar 2021
#48