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iluvtennis

(19,843 posts)
Mon Nov 16, 2020, 10:29 PM Nov 2020

I 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

No matter how you feel about Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential race and his touted plans to embrace science over magical thinking in fighting the coronavirus, we’re stuck with a simple reality.

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 it’s 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 epidemiology—and 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.

...continued at link


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.
20 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
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I Was a Military COVID Planner. The Vaccine Rollout Is Going to Be a Nightmare. (Original Post) iluvtennis Nov 2020 OP
What this country needs is more armored personnel carriers for rural sheriffs. Hermit-The-Prog Nov 2020 #1
Military supply and distribution DeminPennswoods Nov 2020 #2
Is The Military Allowed RobinA Nov 2020 #16
The military supply chain can work via the Natl Guard DeminPennswoods Nov 2020 #20
I can see people coming into the vaccination centers with guns. roamer65 Nov 2020 #3
I think the armed groups invading vaccination centers are there to ... JustABozoOnThisBus Nov 2020 #4
You write this post as if it's already happened. cwydro Nov 2020 #5
You should come visit our local womens health center. SlogginThroughIt Nov 2020 #9
Actually I think you may be more accurate. roamer65 Nov 2020 #7
Didn't you also predict armed gangs at polling centers? cwydro Nov 2020 #6
It happened at the counting locations. SlogginThroughIt Nov 2020 #10
The people who have the guns aren't the same people who want the vaccinations. fescuerescue Nov 2020 #19
On a very small scale I've been involved in flu vaccine distribution forthemiddle Nov 2020 #8
+ agree with the pririties you stated- healthcare workers, seniors, those with comorbities. I'd add iluvtennis Nov 2020 #11
I thought bartenders and clergy should be first, since they are the super spreaders. Klaralven Nov 2020 #15
By the time large-scale distribution starts, we'll have at least half a million dead . . . hatrack Nov 2020 #17
I trust Biden 1000000000% over the current ignoramus Dem2 Nov 2020 #12
+ agree. Team Biden wants to get in now (during transition) to work with Team trump so 1 1/2 iluvtennis Nov 2020 #13
Negligent homicide Dem2 Nov 2020 #14
7 billion people in the world. So they gotta make about 9 billion doses fescuerescue Nov 2020 #18

Hermit-The-Prog

(33,309 posts)
1. What this country needs is more armored personnel carriers for rural sheriffs.
Tue Nov 17, 2020, 04:29 AM
Nov 2020

Yeah, sarcasm won't fix this.

DeminPennswoods

(15,273 posts)
2. Military supply and distribution
Tue Nov 17, 2020, 05:07 AM
Nov 2020

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)
16. Is The Military Allowed
Tue Nov 17, 2020, 01:32 PM
Nov 2020

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)
20. The military supply chain can work via the Natl Guard
Tue Nov 17, 2020, 02:57 PM
Nov 2020

There are Natl Guard/AF Reserve units everywhere. I do not see distribution as an insurmountable problem at all.

roamer65

(36,745 posts)
3. I can see people coming into the vaccination centers with guns.
Tue Nov 17, 2020, 05:31 AM
Nov 2020

Demanding it or else.

Yeah, people are that

JustABozoOnThisBus

(23,336 posts)
4. I think the armed groups invading vaccination centers are there to ...
Tue Nov 17, 2020, 06:38 AM
Nov 2020

... prevent vaccinations and destroy stocks of vaccine. These wingers are completely brainwashed by A.M. radio.

 

cwydro

(51,308 posts)
5. You write this post as if it's already happened.
Tue Nov 17, 2020, 06:42 AM
Nov 2020

It hasn’t.

These kinds of posts help exactly how?

 

SlogginThroughIt

(1,977 posts)
9. You should come visit our local womens health center.
Tue Nov 17, 2020, 11:50 AM
Nov 2020

While it hasn’t 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.

forthemiddle

(1,378 posts)
8. On a very small scale I've been involved in flu vaccine distribution
Tue Nov 17, 2020, 11:45 AM
Nov 2020

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 couldn’t get the shot, etc.

For the coming Covid vaccine, I foresee the exact same situation.
I don’t know a solution, there simply isn’t any.

Not only will there be civil unrest, but also possibly, international unrest if other Countries don’t feel that the pharmaceutical companies are sharing the vaccine In a “fair” way.

iluvtennis

(19,843 posts)
11. + agree with the pririties you stated- healthcare workers, seniors, those with comorbities. I'd add
Tue Nov 17, 2020, 12:14 PM
Nov 2020

EMTs and grocery store workers to the first priority list.

hatrack

(59,583 posts)
17. By the time large-scale distribution starts, we'll have at least half a million dead . . .
Tue Nov 17, 2020, 01:42 PM
Nov 2020

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)
12. I trust Biden 1000000000% over the current ignoramus
Tue Nov 17, 2020, 12:17 PM
Nov 2020

I wish Biden could take over planning right now (like fully, not esoterically.)

iluvtennis

(19,843 posts)
13. + agree. Team Biden wants to get in now (during transition) to work with Team trump so 1 1/2
Tue Nov 17, 2020, 12:21 PM
Nov 2020

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.

fescuerescue

(4,448 posts)
18. 7 billion people in the world. So they gotta make about 9 billion doses
Tue Nov 17, 2020, 01:50 PM
Nov 2020

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.

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