In a reversal, the federal Department of Health and Human Services has changed its thinking on the vaccine rollout.
The nation was told to expect 20 million of us to be vaccinated by Dec. 31, and of course that didn't happen. Earlier this week, the total number of Americans getting their first shots hadn't reached 9 million yet. And folks are getting antsy. Would that we would be this determined to get a flu shot every year.
Because the two major vaccines need to be delivered in two doses--either three weeks or four weeks apart, depending on which company's vaccine--the feds have suggested holding back on half the doses. So that the first people to get the shots are guaranteed to get a second shot, and thus be better protected. Or protected at all.
Instead, the Trump administration has decided to release the second doses immediately, to get the vaccines into more people initially. (It's a plan that the incoming Joe Biden administration has supported, even suggested.)
Dispatches from the front say releasing Pfizer/BioNTech's and Moderna's vaccines in reserve would "ratchet up availability" for inoculations. But it "runs the risk" of depleting the second dose of vaccines to make sure folks get the full amount of the drug needed.
Yes, it's a risk. How much of a risk?
We haven't heard any report--nary a one--that suggests that more doses aren't already in the pipeline. Not one report about a bottleneck at the creation point. Not one report quoting a health-care professional who claims to be concerned that the vaccine(s) would dry up in February.
We suppose releasing all available doses right now might be a conceptual risk, but what's the risk of holding back? That's a real risk, too. Every morning, the paper reports a new record of daily dead from covid-19. In the United States alone, the number of dead has averaged more than 3,200 people each day over the last week.
The feds should release the vials of hope. After that, it's really up to the states to decide what to do next. Are the state governments efficient, smart and lucky enough to make the right calls for their citizens? Some governors may decide that their people aren't, and will hold the second dose in storage. Others . . . .
An abstract or theoretical risk (of all the vaccines drying up at once) is preferable to the concrete risk (of covid-19). It may be a gamble, but it appears it's a gamble that most experts say we should take. We like the odds. Let's get moving.