Trump Administration Changes Course to Speed Up COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout : Shots

Summary (IA Generated)

toggle caption Joe Raedle/Getty Images A health care worker with the Florida Department of Health administers a Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine at a retirement community in Pompano Beach, Florida.

New Trump administration guidance is expected Tuesday, urging states to make all people over 65 eligible for the vaccine.

The Trump Administration is making several big changes to its coronavirus vaccine distribution strategy, officials announced Tuesday, in a bid to jump start the rollout and get more Americans vaccinated quickly.

‘We had been holding back second doses as a safety stock,’ Azar said.

‘We now believe that our manufacturing is predictable enough that we can ensure second doses are available for people from ongoing production, so everything is now available to our states and our health care providers.

The change in releasing more second doses of vaccine preempts a policy change the Biden team announced last week.

Second, the Trump administration will be calling on states to expand the pool of people eligible to receive vaccine to those 65 and older, and those with underlying health conditions that make them more susceptible COVID-19.

While the decision for who is eligible to get a vaccine is up to states, recommendations from the federal government are influential.

The Trump administration now appears to be disregarding those CDC recommendations in urging states to skip directly to the next, larger priority group.