Former FDA suggests 'costly delay' getting vaccines to nursing homes was probably avoidable
Residents in long-term care facilities will be among the first people to receive the coronavirus vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, but there has already been a distribution delay that could prove costly for a population group that is particularly vulnerable to severe cases of COVID-19.
The vaccine, which was authorized for emergency use last week, is expected to roll out Monday, but CVS and Walgreens, two companies that will distribute the shots at many nursing homes, have said they were told not to administer them in those locations until the week of Dec. 21 (although Human and Health Services Secretary Alex Azar has contradicted that timeline.)
The news has created some confusion, but former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb broke the process down for CBS News' Margaret Brennan on Sunday. As Gottlieb explained, the "critical issue" is that the government hasn't gone into the nursing homes to get consent from individual patients in care facilities. That needs to be done before employees from CVS and Walgreens can administer the vaccine.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Gottlieb believes the "costly delay" may have been avoidable, despite regulatory orders. "I think they could have" gotten ahead of the FDA's emergency use authorization, Gottlieb said, by clearing a "fact sheet" on Pfizer's trial data with the FDA ahead of the official hearing, or maybe even providing a limited emergency use authorization just for nursing homes. However, that wasn't done and "we are where we are right now." Tim O'Donnell
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.
-
Today's political cartoons - February 8, 2025
Cartoons Saturday's cartoons - gettin' outta DOGE, Senate confirmations, and more
By The Week US Published
-
5 meritorious cartoons about the war on DEI
Cartoons Artists take on self-evident truths, recent history, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Bucatini alla zozzona recipe
The Week Recommends Classic Roman dish is 'slurpy, fun and absolutely heavenly'
By The Week UK Published
-
New form of H5N1 bird flu found in US dairy cows
Speed Read This new form of bird flu is different from the version that spread through herds in the last year
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Microplastics accumulating in human brains, study finds
Speed Read The amount of tiny plastic particles found in human brains increased dramatically from 2016 to 2024
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
FDA approves painkiller said to thwart addiction
Speed Read Suzetrigine, being sold as Journavx, is the first new pharmaceutical pain treatment approved by the FDA in 20 years
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Study finds possible alternative abortion pill
Speed Read An emergency contraception (morning-after) pill called Ella could be an alternative to mifepristone for abortions
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
California declares bird flu emergency
Speed Read The emergency came hours after the nation's first person with severe bird flu infection was hospitalized
By Rafi Schwartz, The Week US Published
-
Bird flu one mutuation from human threat, study finds
Speed Read A Scripps Research Institute study found one genetic tweak of the virus could enable its spread among people
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Dark chocolate tied to lower diabetes risk
Speed Read The findings were based on the diets of about 192,000 US adults over 34 years
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
ACA opens 2025 enrollment, enters 2024 race
Speed Read Mike Johnson promises big changes to the Affordable Care Act if Trump wins the election
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published