Michigan’s Governor asks White House to rush more vaccines to virus hot spots to counter rising cases.

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Wed, 2021-03-31 13:47 — mike kraft

Michigan’s Whitmer asks White House to surge vaccines to virus hot spots as cases climb The administration’s coronavirus coordinator says it is sticking with its allocation formula. Isaac Stanley-Becker Washington Post

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), battling a surge of coronavirus infections in her state, appealed on Tuesday to White House officials to shift away from a strict population-based formula for vaccine allocation and instead rush more doses to hard-hit parts of the country.

“I know that some national public health experts have suggested this as an effective mitigation tool,” she said during the White House coronavirus response team’s weekly call with governors, according to a recording of the conversation obtained by The Washington Post. “And I know we’d certainly welcome this approach in our state.”

The inquiry reflects growing unease among state officials on the front lines of what health experts say could be a new wave of the virus already afflicting parts of Europe. And it illustrates the pressure President Biden is under, even from members of his own party, to show he is taking steps to address disquieting trends after a prolonged period of declining infections.

The accelerating pace of inoculations has not been sufficient to fend off case increases as more-transmissible variants circulate in the United States, especially among young people who have fallen sick in outbreaks tied to schools. As of Monday, Michigan’s seven-day average of new daily cases stood at 5,157, a 58 percent increase from a week ago and the steepest increase nationwide, according to Post data. The state, where restrictions were recently relaxed, also reported the largest growth in that same time frame in coronavirus hospitalizations, which rose by more than 47 percent.

But Jeff Zients, the White House’s coronavirus coordinator, told Whitmer the Biden administration is not inclined to change its formula for allocating vaccines. The federal government sends all three authorized vaccines to states and other jurisdictions based on the size of their populations, while setting aside separate portions for retail pharmacies, federally run mass vaccination sites and community health centers.

“We have to make sure that everything is thought through and on the table,” Zients said, advising Whitmer to work with experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to ensure the increasing supply of shots is used most effectively to protect vulnerable populations. ...

As manufacturing continues to ramp up, some experts have suggested further changes to how vaccines are distributed.

Citing outbreaks in particular states such as Michigan, Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, said over the weekend that the Biden administration should “surge vaccine into those parts of the country.” ...

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