Several Democratic governors have criticized the Trump administration for apparently misleading public health officials for keeping a stash of Covid-19 vaccines in reserve.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Tuesday that the government would begin releasing vaccine doses that are being held in “physical reserves” to ensure adequate supplies for second doses.

Both Pfizer and Moderna federally approved vaccines are given in two shots, several weeks apart.

The Washington Post reported Friday that despite Azar’s statements, there is no such nationwide vaccine supply. Quoting state and federal officials, the newspaper said the Trump administration began shipping its available offer back in December.

Democratic leaders say the lack of a Federal Reserve will mess up plans to increase the speed and scope of their vaccination campaigns.

“Last night I received disturbing news backed up straight to me by General Perna of Operation Warp Speed: The states will not receive increased vaccine supplies from national inventory next week because there is no federal reserve dose,” said Oregon Gov. Kate Brown wrote about General Gus Perna, Chief Operating Officer of Operation Warp Speed, in a post on Twitter.

“This is a national deception,” Brown added. “Oregon’s seniors, teachers, and we all had to rely on the promise that Oregon’s share of the Federal Reserve of vaccines would be given to us.”

Washington Democratic Governor Jay Inslee also took to the platform and said the government “must respond immediately for this deception”.

“I am shocked that we have been lied to and that there is no national reserve,” Colorado Democrat Jared Polis wrote on Twitter.

He said the federal inventory release announcement “resulted in us expecting 210,000 cans next week” and that other governors had made similar plans.

“Now we’re finding out we’re only getting 79,000 next week,” Polis wrote.

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, a Democrat, said at a press conference that “they lied,” referring to the federal government.

Walz and democratic governments. Michigan’s Gretchen Whitmer and Wisconsin’s Tony Evers said in a joint statement on Friday: “It has become abundantly clear that not only has the Trump administration botched adoption of the safe and effective COVID-19 vaccine, but the American people as well was misled by these delays. “

The governors requested permission to buy vaccines directly from the manufacturers.

“Without additional shipping or direct purchase approval, our states could be forced to abandon plans in the coming weeks for public vaccination clinics that are expected to vaccinate tens of thousands. It is time for the Trump administration to do the right thing and help us end this Pandemic, “wrote the governors.

Azar responded to the governors in a thread on Twitter on Saturday, describing their claims as “completely misleading” and “devaluation”.

“We had a supply of reserved second doses as of December. We started releasing these second doses in late December so people could get their second doses. We have progressed this release gradually,” wrote Azar.

The HHS chief said the announcement this week was “that we will be releasing the remaining reserved second doses according to the cadence set – to make sure the second doses are available at the correct interval – and that we have no reserves in the future would. ” second cans. “

“The efforts of some governors to mislead the American people into distraction from their own distribution errors are deplorable,” Azar said, citing data showing that Michigan, Oregon and Wisconsin had not yet given the bulk of the vaccines already distributed in those states .

The Trump administration has grappled with Democratic civil servants since the Covid-19 crisis began, initially for delivering tests and other medical equipment and more recently for distributing vaccines.

President-elect Joe Biden, who will be inaugurated on Wednesday, has pledged to strengthen the federal government’s role in vaccine delivery. Biden has pledged to give 100 million vaccine doses in his first 100 days in office.

So far, vaccination efforts have lagged far behind official predictions. About 12 million doses have been administered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Health officials had hoped to bring that number to 20 million by January.

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The director of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Dr. Robert Redfield, holds up a CDC document that reads “COVID-19 Vaccination Program Interim Playbook for Jurisdiction Operations” while speaking during a Senate Subcommittee on Appropriations hearing on Capitol Hill Washington, United States, Sept. 16, 2020 .

Andrew Harnik | Reuters

A more contagious strain of the coronavirus, first found in the UK late last year, could become the dominant strain in the United States by March as the nation seeks to vaccinate people against the disease, according to a new study by the Centers for Disease Control fights contraception.

“The modeled trajectory of this variant in the USA shows Rapid growth in early 2021, which will become the predominant variant in March, “according to the CDC study published on Friday.

The researchers warned that increasing its spread could place a greater strain on the country’s hospitals and require greater public health action to curb transmission of the virus until enough people are vaccinated. Increased surveillance of the mutating viruses, coupled with better compliance with public health measures such as masks, hand washing and physical distancing, could help slow the spread of the virus.

“These measures will be more effective if taken sooner rather than later to slow the initial spread of variant B.1.1.7. Efforts to prepare the health system for further spikes in certain cases are warranted,” the researchers said.

So far, according to CDC data, which were last updated on Wednesday, the country has only found 76 Covid-19 cases with the highly infectious variant B.1.1.7. However, many of the identified cases involved people with no travel history, suggesting that the variant is spreading undetected in the community.

Global health experts have claimed that while the new strain found in the UK and a similar strain found in South Africa are more contagious, they do not appear to make people sick or make a person more likely to die.

However, more cases could ultimately lead to additional hospital stays if the nation is already home to record Covid-19 patients. The rapid transmission of the new variants could require more people to be vaccinated in order to achieve something called herd immunity, the researchers said.

Herd immunity is when enough of the population is immune to a disease, either through vaccination or natural infection, which makes it unlikely to spread and protect the rest of the community, the Mayo Clinic says.

The US has been sluggish in its vaccination efforts and missed its target of vaccinating 20 million people by the end of last year. The US has delivered more than 31.1 million doses to date, but only administered 12.3 million of them, according to CDC data.

There is also concern that the new variants, particularly the strain found in South Africa, may be more resistant to monoclonal antibody treatments, which have been shown to reduce the chances of someone ending up in hospital if infected early enough.

The CDC study

The agency’s investigation found that while the current prevalence of the variant in the US is still unknown, the analysis makes up less than 0.5% of cases. The US has not yet discovered the variant found in South Africa or any other strain identified in Japan in travelers from Brazil, the researchers said.

In their model, the researchers estimated that the variant was 50% more transmissible than the current strains. They also estimate that between 10% and 30% of people already have immunity to pre-existing infections and will be given 1 million doses of vaccine daily starting this month.

Although the prevalence of strain B.1.1.7 is estimated to be low due to its high transferability, it is likely to grow rapidly in early 2021, as the model showed. Even with vaccines, the variant will continue to spread, although the drugs showed the greatest effect in reducing the transmission of the strain in places where the disease was already regressing.

“Early efforts that can limit the spread of variant B.1.1.7, such as universal and increased adherence to public health containment strategies, will leave more time for ongoing vaccinations to achieve higher population immunity,” said it in the study.