Trump planning for U.S. rollout of coronavirus vaccine falling short, officials warn

Trump planning for U.S. rollout of coronavirus vaccine falling short, officials warn As scientists and pharmaceutical companies work at breakneck speed to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, public health officials and senior U.S. lawmakers are sounding alarms about the Trump administration's lack of planning for its nationwide distribution. Richard Cowan U.S.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As scientists and pharmaceutical companies work at breakneck speed to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, public health officials and senior U.S. lawmakers are sounding alarms about the Trump administration’s lack of planning for its nationwide distribution.

The federal government traditionally plays a principal role in funding and overseeing the manufacturing and distribution of new vaccines, which often draw on scarce ingredients and need to be made, stored and transported carefully.

There won't be enough vaccine for all 330 million Americans right away, so the government also has a role in deciding who gets it first, and in educating a vaccine-wary here public about its potential life saving merits.

Right now, it is unclear who in Washington is in charge of oversight, much less any critical details, some state health officials and members of Congress told Reuters.

Last week, a senior Trump administration official told Reuters that Operation Warp Speed, a White House task force first announced here in May, was "committed to implementing the (vaccine) plan and distributing medical countermeasures as fast as possible."

However, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told a Senate hearing on July 2 that his agency would spearhead the campaign to develop and distribute a vaccine for the new coronavirus. “This is really the prime responsibility of CDC,” he said.

Republican Senator Roy Blunt, who chairs a panel overseeing health program funding, is one of several lawmakers pushing for the CDC, which was founded in 1946 to counter malaria, to lead the effort.

“They are the only federal agency with a proven track record of vaccine distribution and long-standing agreements with health departments across the country,” Blunt said in a statement in mid-July...

Health officials and lawmakers say they worry that without thorough planning and coordination with states, the vaccine distribution could be saddled with the same sort of disruptions that led to chronic shortages of coronavirus diagnostic tests and other medical supplies.

Washington should be educating people now about vaccination plans in order to build public confidence and avoid confusion, said Senator Patty Murray, the senior Democrat on the health program funding committee.

"What is the priority, who gets it first? First-responders, healthcare workers, those kinds of things," Murray said in a telephone interview. On July 13, Murray published a road map here for vaccine distribution.

A poorly executed rollout would mean “we will be sitting here two years from now, three years from now, in the same economic and health position we are today,” she said...