The Gross Incompetence of Public Health

 In late 2020 I wrote an article on vaccines and variants. The key point is that COVID is akin to Influenza from a Public Health perspective. Namely there will continual variants and new updated vaccines will be necessary. I even suggested that we could get a step ahead. 

The previous Administration did a Herculean job in developing the vaccine and in establishing its distribution. Some of the early disasters were in states like New Jersey where our benign Governor allowed tens of thousands of deaths in nursing homes and when the vaccine became available he sent it to prisons, drug addicts, and the Press before those most vulnerable. Of course he never took the credit for the mass collection of deaths.

Now we have updated vaccines for the Omicron variant. Simple process, just took this long to get through the current Administration. However these current cast of characters have apparently deliberately allowed for the destruction of the infrastructure for the distribution of the new vaccines.

As the NY Times reports:

Having shifted much of the rollout to private sites, though, states have been promised FEMA reimbursements on a relatively modest $550 million in vaccination spending so far this year. Last year, that figure was $8.5 billion. And while providers are supposed to vaccinate everyone for free, with or without insurance, the federal government ran out of money this spring to offer reimbursements for shots for uninsured people, making it more difficult for them to receive boosters. Sonya Bernstein, a senior policy adviser for the White House Covid response team, said federal spending to support vaccination efforts was being held back by a stalemate in Congress over the administration’s request for billions of dollars in additional pandemic aid. Republicans have said that additional coronavirus spending could be covered with funding already approved by Congress, an assertion that some state health officials say is false.

It appears that we have gone from bad to worse in the current Administration. In my opinion the staff associated with COVID in the White House may meet the needs of the Administration but not those of the country.

How many more will dies because of these characters? They may make New Jersey look competent!