Simple solutions for simple minds

Once a COVID-19 vaccine is authorized by the Food and Drug Administration, allocations will be made based on the total number of adults in the state. "We wanted to keep this simple," Alex Azar, Secretary of Health and Human Services said at a media briefing Tuesday, "We thought it would be the fairest approach, and the most consistent."

  NPR

Fair? Consistent? The virus isn't fair. Or consistent. How about we allot vaccine where the need is the greatest? Too complicated for Trump's HHS?

The independent vaccine advisory group for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has proposed allocations based on high-risk groups. The CDC advisory committee had previously been central to the government's vaccine distribution plans.

At a briefing on October 23, top HHS official Paul Mango told reporters that Operation Warp Speed would send vaccines out to states based on the number of people in high-risk groups, such health care workers, nursing home residents and factory workers, who had been identified by the CDC advisory committee.

[...]

Operation Warp Speed officials had previously said they would wait for these guidelines to be completed.

So what happened?

"I finally made the decision, late Friday night," said General Gustave Perna, head of logistics for Operation Warp Speed, at the briefing Tuesday. "So states could prioritize based on [their] amount," meaning how many doses of vaccine each state will receive.

Absolutely absurd.

HHS Secretary Azar says the way vaccines are allocated will not change once the advisory committee makes its recommendations. "At the end of the day, that is a decision of the U.S. government's to make."

They intend to be incompetent to the bitter end. Which will come sooner than necessary for too many people.

No vaccines have been authorized yet, but the FDA has set a December 10 meeting to consider the first application for a COVID-19 vaccine co-developed by drug companies Pfizer and BioNTech. If the vaccine is given the OK by the FDA, the government expects to begin vaccine distribution in mid-December.

[...]

There may be valid reasons why Operation Warp Speed has changed the way it's decided to allocate vaccines — and it would be helpful for the public to see how their thinking evolved, says Dr. Grace Lee, an advisory committee member.

And there may be pigs with wings, doc.

[The committee is] weighing the relative benefits and risks of vaccinating specific populations such as health care personnel and essential workers, who are more likely to be exposed to the coronavirus because of jobs requirements; and people who are older and those with underlying health conditions, who are more likely to get severely ill or die from COVID-19.

At the meeting, the committee generally supported prioritizing vaccines for workers who keep our health, food and transport systems running, ahead of those with health issues.

Weigh all you want. Alex Azar has spoken.