RAPID COVID VACCINE ROLLOUT BACKFIRED IN SOME U.S. STATES

Despite the clamor to speed up the US vaccination drive against COVID-19, the first three months of the rollout suggest faster is not necessarily better, with an analysis showing states like South Carolina and Florida that raced ahead of others vaccinated fewer people than Hawaii and Connecticut, which worked methodically.

The explanation, as experts see it, is that the rapid expansion of eligibility caused a surge in demand too big for some states to handle and led to serious disarray. Vaccine supplies proved insufficient or unpredictable, websites crashed and phone lines became jammed, spreading confusion, frustration and resignation among many people, Carla K. Johnson and Nicky Forster reported for the Associated Press (AP).

“The infrastructure just wasn’t ready. It kind of backfired,” said Dr. Rebecca Wurtz, an infectious disease physician and health data specialist at the University of Minnesota’s School of Public Health. She added: “In the rush to satisfy everyone, governors satisfied few and frustrated many.”

The findings could contain an important go-slow lesson for the nation’s governors, many of whom have announced dramatic expansions in their rollouts over the past few days after being challenged by President Joe Biden to make all adults eligible for vaccination by May 1.

“If you’re more targeted and more focused, you can do a better job,” said Sema Sgaier, executive director of Surgo Ventures, a nonprofit health-data organization that conducted the analysis in collaboration with AP. “You can open it up — if you have set up the infrastructure to vaccinate all those people fast.”

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