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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI Was a Military COVID Planner. The Vaccine Rollout Is Going to Be a Nightmare.
I Was a Military COVID Planner. The Vaccine Rollout Is Going to Be a Nightmare.Our long winter with COVID could turn into a slog through the spring and summer, even with an effective vaccine.
by Kris Alexander Updated Nov. 16, 2020 8:22AM ET / Published Nov. 16, 2020 4:57AM E
https://www.thedailybeast.com/military-covid-19-planner-explains-vaccine-rollout-problems-in-texas-and-elsewhere
The incoming administration will inherit one of the most daunting challenges any president has ever faced: planning and executing a national mass-vaccination campaign in the middle of a global pandemic.
Before I retired from the Army, I served as a COVID crisis planner at NORTHCOM, where we were terrified of a potential COVICANE. Luckily, a major hurricane did not deliver a Katrina- or Harvey-like hit to a big city facing a coronavirus outbreak this year, at least on the scale we feared.
But our next biggest concern was what the virus might do to rural America. And its playing out in harrowing fashion right now.
With cases spiking to over 10 million, the virus is everywhere, and spreading deeply into every corner of the country. This is where the Biden administration will face its biggest challenge, especially as it pertains to rolling out a potential vaccine.
This has been a crisis a long time in the making. As the Texas Observer recently noted, in 2019, Texas budgeted $17.7 million for infectious disease surveillance, prevention, and epidemiologyand over $400 million for border security. So even when a vaccine is delivered, it will be going to a state that is understaffed and underfunded.
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As Joe Biden said in his press conferenc e today, there is a lot of planning to be done and the transiton needs to start immediately or else he/his staff will be lose 1 1/2 months of planning.
Hermit-The-Prog
(33,309 posts)Yeah, sarcasm won't fix this.
DeminPennswoods
(15,273 posts)The US military has one of the biggest supply and distribution chains in the US. We know how to do this. We move people and material all over the world all day, every day. This is why the Pentagon's logistics system is involved and not someone at NORTHCOM.
RobinA
(9,888 posts)do this internally? The National Guard, yeah, but the full scale biggest military the world has ever seen? I was discussing this with my sister last night. We know one person who flies freight for a very large company and another person who works in logistics for a pharma company, not one of the ones in question. The country's freight capacity is already teetering on the edge of breakdown, and there's nowhere near enough medication components, OR packaging for cold stuff. Should be interesting.
DeminPennswoods
(15,273 posts)There are Natl Guard/AF Reserve units everywhere. I do not see distribution as an insurmountable problem at all.
roamer65
(36,745 posts)Demanding it or else.
Yeah, people are that
JustABozoOnThisBus
(23,336 posts)... prevent vaccinations and destroy stocks of vaccine. These wingers are completely brainwashed by A.M. radio.
cwydro
(51,308 posts)It hasnt.
These kinds of posts help exactly how?
SlogginThroughIt
(1,977 posts)While it hasnt happened specifically at a vaccination distribution center similar has happened at WH clinics, churches, and pizza places.
These people are fucking crazy. And they have a god figure inciting violence.
roamer65
(36,745 posts)cwydro
(51,308 posts)Several here did.
Didnt happen.
SlogginThroughIt
(1,977 posts)Police even arrested some.
fescuerescue
(4,448 posts)forthemiddle
(1,378 posts)In the late 1990s, there was one year with an extreme shortage of flu shots.
I was in charge of scheduling the shot clinics for the patients at the medical clinic I worked in.
First the healthcare workers got priority, then it was seniors, and those with comorbidities. The general public was last, and they were pissed!
How dare we decide who could, or couldnt get the shot, etc.
For the coming Covid vaccine, I foresee the exact same situation.
I dont know a solution, there simply isnt any.
Not only will there be civil unrest, but also possibly, international unrest if other Countries dont feel that the pharmaceutical companies are sharing the vaccine In a fair way.
iluvtennis
(19,843 posts)EMTs and grocery store workers to the first priority list.
Klaralven
(7,510 posts)hatrack
(59,583 posts)Maybe more.
Hospitalizations and death tolls might well still be accelerating, given the degree of dumbassitude displayed from sea to shining sea so far.
So, yeah, my money's on violent, stupid, panicky and brainwashed coming together to cook up a big red-white-and-blue parfait of 'Murka.
Dem2
(8,168 posts)I wish Biden could take over planning right now (like fully, not esoterically.)
iluvtennis
(19,843 posts)months aren't lost on the planning side.
trump not allowing the GSA to ascertain Biden/team for the transition will result in more people dying unnecessarily.
Dem2
(8,168 posts)I wish there was justice in the world - UGH.
fescuerescue
(4,448 posts)making 9 billion of anything is a massive job.
Getting to 7 billion people is even more massive.
It's why people in the world still go hungry. We have enough food, we just can't seem to get it to them.
Biden will do it though.