Enlarge / Well being and Human Companies Secretary Alex Azar on December 14, 2020 in Washington, DC. (credit score: Getty | Jacquelyn Martin)
The Trump administration’s Operation Warp Velocity is shifting gears for distributing COVID-19 vaccines in a last-ditch effort to speed up the nation’s sputtering rollout—and it’s utilizing plans that carefully resemble these introduced by President-elect Joe Biden’s staff final week.
Extra doses
Warp Velocity officers mentioned in a Tuesday press briefing that they’ll now improve the variety of doses accessible to states and jurisdictions, ditching the present technique of holding again half of obtainable doses to order them for the second spherical of the two-dose immunizations. Members of Biden’s transition staff introduced an analogous plan final week, saying that the president-elect “helps releasing accessible doses instantly and believes the federal government ought to cease holding again vaccine provide so we will get extra photographs in People’ arms now.”
When requested if Warp Velocity officers had mentioned the plan with Biden’s staff—which is able to take over subsequent week—Well being and Human Companies Secretary Alex Azar mentioned that they’d not. “We on the Operation Warp Velocity board made the willpower” to make the modifications, Azar mentioned. He additionally repeatedly emphasised that altering the board’s plans was at all times a part of its members’ intentions.
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