Former FDA chief on what went wrong in U.S. Covid-19 vaccine plans

The U.S. should expand coronavirus vaccine eligibility in order to ensure more Americans receive shots in the coming weeks, Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CNBC on Monday.

“Right now, every shot in an arm is a win,” Gottlieb said on “Squawk Box.”

The U.S. fell far short of its year-end 2020 goal of vaccinating 20 million people against Covid-19. While about 13.1 million doses were delivered to states as of Jan. 2, only roughly 4.23 million Americans actually received their initial dose, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Vaccines from Moderna and Pfizer, the only ones authorized in the U.S. for emergency use, both require two doses a few weeks apart.

Gottlieb, a former Food and Drug Administration commissioner and a current Pfizer board member, said the federal government should stockpile fewer doses, instead of pursuing the current policy of withholding about half of the available supply with the intention of guaranteeing people get their second shots.

Because of the intensity of the current Covid-19 outbreak, with some hospital systems being strained and thousands of Americans dying from the disease each week, Gottlieb said the priority should be rolling out as many initial doses as possible. “We know getting vaccines in arms can be a partial backstop against continued spread,” he added.

“I think people should be getting the second dose. They should be getting the second dose largely on time, but we can be pushing out more first doses now and using the future supply that’s going to come onto the market in January to administer some of those second doses,” he said, referring to vaccine-makers’ plans to continually ramp up supply in 2021.

“You need to stockpile something if you want to make sure there’s a smooth transition to the second doses, but putting away 50% of all the doses, I think, is denying more people access to a vaccine,” stressed Gottlieb, who led the FDA from 2017 to 2019 in the Trump administration.

At the same time, he acknowledged that one potential reason why fewer Americans have been vaccinated than expected is there is hesitancy to receive the shot among the groups of people who were given priority, such as staff at long-term care facilities. For example, Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said last week that roughly 60% of nursing home workers in the state have declined to be vaccinated.

In addition to those living and working at long-term care facilities, health-care workers also received priority in the initial rollout. A CDC advisory panel last month recommended that “frontline essential workers” and people 75 years of age and older should be next in line as supply becomes more available.

However, states have the ability to define who is eligible to receive the vaccine, and some such as Texas and Florida have already announced they will be modifying the CDC guidance for the second group. In Texas, for instance, priority will be given to people 65 years and older as well as those with certain underlying medical conditions.

Gottlieb said he believes states should be willing to expand the eligibility, including making the vaccine available at retail pharmacies, because it is important that high-risk Americans have access during what he called “the worst part of this epidemic right now.”

“If we have a group of Americans that we know wants the vaccine very badly and would take it quickly and also happens to be at the highest risk of a bad Covid outcome — and I’m thinking in particular about senior citizens in this country — I would just give it to them,” Gottlieb said.

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[markm]

This is the smartest man in the room. He knows risk reward well as he worked on Wall Street before medical school.

[DQDebra]

Very sad that this wasn’t better planned. They had plenty of time.

[softdrinkking]

Please everybody let's get our grandmothers and grandfathers out of these nursing homes it's too dangerous

[crinosis]

One flaw after another, it never ends with this administration.

[kathybrady]

Even tho my mother has already had COVID (at age 85, asymptomatic), her nursing home is on something like it’s 4th lockdown because staff keep bringing it in!!! She can’t live outside of a care facility because she has Alzheimer’s and is partially paralyzed. But now it will be impossible to move her due to this most recent outbreak which is the most severe. I totally agree with Dr. G, EVERY DOSE should have been used on the frail elderly because they are the ones dying!!!

[sungum]

There is always going to be bottleneck at the level of administration of needles. Other delivery methods of vaccines must be considered and expedited to solve this pandemic, or just stick with old needle methods and take years before we achieve herd immunity. Worst case scenario we are back to ground zero if covid mutates to escape current vaccines.

[vinnieboombotz]

Former FDA now sits on board of company making $$$$ from vaccine. And you expected him to say what?

[rs]

"There were very specific identifiers, extremely recognizable..."

[thomasreedy]

What went wrong?

A hotelier is running the country. I mean, If I realllly had the hankering to play golf I might ask DJT for advice.

But leading a groundbreaking distribution network????

[alyceknowlton-jablonski]

Nursing homes and assisted living facilities in WI have not even started vaccinating yet. We're told not for another week, at least.

[inconvenientexistenlism]

Shepherd Smith here, thanks for watching CNBC, on YouTube. (eyes blink)

[bongbongtravels]

Just imagine if we gave Trump another term. The American people are doomed.

[superperformance]

We all know that trump does no planning. But what about the other people?

[Chew]

Somehow, Biden will be to blame for Trump's failed leadership

[geneolinger]

Why do you keep putting this guy on? Contract requirement?

[kathybrady]

Dr. Gottlieb is the smartest voice on the pandemic, period.

[sju]

How can USA be considered first world? Ridiculous when you know for months that this will need to distributed and deployed asap

[lukeg]

Regardless of how fast it went, the media was always going to say it wasn’t fast enough. Enough nonsense. Reopen America.

[neeper]

He’s profited from his government job and the media promotes him

[EBstudio]

lol we all waiting for the after effects... continue.