By Dr. Lyndon Haviland

1.22.21

TheHill.com

Outgoing Health and Human Services (HHS) Sec. Alex Azar announced last week the U.S. would soon distribute our COVID-19 vaccine stockpile to try and accelerate the pace of U.S. immunizations. 

We now know this reserve has already been depleted and that every available dose is being taken directly from the production line and put into circulation. 

The threat this aggressive strategy presents to public health safety is extraordinary. … Anything that risks a delay in the delivery of a second shot gambles our future. It rests on a belief that, with vaccine production on the rise, the reserve can reach more people. Yet we simply don’t know if manufacturers will have enough time to keep pace and generate more doses for those on-the-clock to receive the second shot.