When the successful outcomes of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were announced, millions of Americans breathed a sigh of relief, believing that at long last the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel of this long and debilitating pandemic was at least finally, if dimly, visible. But the sad reality is that our relief hinged on an assumption of competence with regards to the vaccine’s distribution—competence that in truth, none of us had any business expecting from the Trump administration.
What Americans (understandably) failed to consider, in their elation over these vaccine announcements, was the extent of the ineptitude of an administration which, until Jan. 20, will be responsible for the vaccines’ distribution. People briefly looked past how deep the rot actually runs in our government institutions after four years of deliberate dereliction under Donald Trump-appointed cronies—and how that decrepitude would impair even a seemingly simple endeavor such as distribution of a needle’s worth of vaccine to where it was most needed. In that moment of relief, Americans also failed to recall something even more basic: the utterly callous, practiced indifference that these same administration officials have always exhibited toward providing anything in terms of assistance to Americans in the first place.
Over the past few days we’ve been treated to welcome videos and reports of hospital workers and others beginning to receive the vaccine. Yet as reported by Josh Kovensky, writing for Talking Points Memo, behind those feel-good stories, problems lurk, contradicting prior claims by the administration about the timetable of distribution, specifically who will receive the Pfizer vaccine, and when.
As Kavensky writes:
Some major problems are already emerging in the initial rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, and the federal government is not providing any good answers.
The early warning signs:
- At least seven states are reporting cuts in their initial allocations of doses.
- One governor is reporting that the total number of doses projected to be available nationwide has been cut by four million monthly.
- The vaccine maker reports it is not having production problems and says it has doses in warehouses, but is awaiting direction from the federal government on where to send them.
If you combine just those three facts, the logical conclusion is that the federal effort is already failing in some unspecified way.
Thus far, according to Kovensky, Illinois, Nebraska, Michigan, Washington, Indiana, Iowa, and Florida have all reported they will receive considerably smaller shipments of the Pfizer vaccine than promised. Washington Gov.Jay Inslee publicly expressed his frustration.
Illinois has also seen its upcoming allotment of the Pfizer vaccine slashed by half. As reported in Crain’s Chicago Business, Gov J.B. Pritzker now says he’ll “believe vaccines arrive when and if they do.”
Iowa’s shipments have been cut by 30%, and Nebraska will not be receiving anything at all next week, its shipment being put off until the last week in December. Clearly, this problem is not limited to “blue states,” which one might reasonably suspect of receiving short shrift from this vindictive administration.
For its part, Pfizer has confirmed it has millions of doses of the vaccine sitting in its warehouses, waiting for direction, that none of its shipments are delayed, and that it has no production problems whatsoever.
In a statement, the drugmaker said that this week it "successfully shipped all 2.9 million doses that we were asked to ship by the U.S. Government to the locations specified by them."
In addition, Pfizer said "we have millions more doses sitting in our warehouse but, as of now, we have not received any shipment instructions for additional doses."
Oddly enough, on Wednesday of this week, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis blamed Pfizer in attempting to explain why two shipments of 450,000 doses of the vaccine to his state were suddenly “on hold.” DeSantis has tied himself to Trump during the entire pandemic; the fact that he apparently lied actually speaks volumes about who is actually at fault.
Even more odd—but then again, perhaps not so odd—is the refusal of the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the distribution effort to the states, to explain why the vaccine is not being shipped. As Kovensky points out, HHS head Alex Azar is on the record with glowing predictions that the nation may be undergoing vaccinations on a mass scale as early as February or March. However, other officials associated with the so-called Operation Warp Speed distribution effort have offered a considerably more restrained assessment, suggesting late summer as a more likely time frame.
In fact, that’s exactly what President-elect Joe Biden’s team is saying right now.
The team of medical professionals advising Biden is warning internally that the program he will inherit from outgoing President Donald Trump may not live up to expectations of fast and widespread relief. Instead of mass distribution to the general population in the coming months, pandemic-fatigued Americans may find approval delays, distribution disruptions and insufficient quantities.
It is suspected, by some people familiar with the distribution scheme, that the Trump administration’s “rosy predictions” were made knowing they were false, so that Biden, taking over an effort which is being carelessly if not deliberately mishandled, will be the one forced to play catch-up and reset Americans’ expectations.
“You have to wonder whether the Trump team is intentionally laying the groundwork for the incoming Biden Administration to blow past expectations that couldn’t possibly be met because of the current White House’s incompetence,” said Zac Petkanas, a Democratic strategist who formed a group dedicated to criticizing Trump’s Covid-19 response.
There are actually two certainties among this developing swirl of confusion, delay, and unresponsiveness. One certainty, of course, is that the longer the process takes, the more Americans will die. The second certainty is that this administration has never exhibited the slightest bit of concern about the first certainty.
Quite simply, anyone who expects competence, or even concern, from this administration when it comes to the vaccine rollout has not been paying attention.