FEMA would operate up to 100 federally run mass vaccination sites under Biden plan

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Sat, 2021-01-23 10:45 — mike kraft

FEMA would operate up to 100 federally run mass vaccination sites under Biden plan A draft FEMA document envisions four different models for sites, with the largest capable of handling 6,000 doses a day. Isaac Stanley-Becker Washington Post

Up to 100 sites run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency could begin offering coronavirus vaccine within the next month, part of a strategy that would dramatically expand the federal government’s role in the effort to corral the pandemic.

The plan, which was announced by President Biden on his first day in office, is already taking shape in the form of a draft “Concept of Operations,” which was obtained by The Washington Post. The document envisions FEMA, which previously had more of a piecemeal role in pandemic response, fully unleashed.

Its mission will be to “provide federal support to existing or new community vaccination centers and mobile clinics across the country.”

Enlisting FEMA, an agency of the Department of Homeland Security, is among the clearest signals that Biden intends to involve the federal government more directly in the administration of vaccines, instead of leaving the final step of the massive effort to state and local authorities.

“FEMA … will mobilize thousands of clinical and nonclinical staff and contractors who will work hand-in-glove with the National Guard and state and local teams to assist, augment, and expedite the distribution and administration of coronavirus vaccines,” the FEMA document states.

If requested by states and other jurisdictions, the draft notes, “the U.S. Government would develop, equip, provide information management, and staff and operate the site.”

Shots administered at these sites are expected to draw on the vaccine supply made available to individual states and territories, and some large cities, rather than relying on a new federal allocation stream. A lack of abundant vaccine supply will remain the most pressing problem, probably through March. ...

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