Now that the Pfizer vaccine has been approved by the FDA state and local health departments and providers will need more funding from the government to get the vaccinations out to the public.
This update came after the members of the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices voted to approve the COVID-19 vaccine for people 16 years and older. ACIP member and pediatrician at the University of California Los Angeles, Dr. Peter Szilagyi said there is a big need for “substantially increased government funding to actually implement the recommendation.”
“I know we’re going to have very tough and sad times ahead because of the surge and a limited vaccine supply,” said Szilagyi, “but I am really hopeful that this is the beginning of the end of the coronavirus pandemic.”
Dr. Beth Bell, an ACIP member and a clinical professor of global health at the University of Washington, emphasized Szilagyi’s comments, saying it wouldn’t be unfair to compare how much funding the federal government contributed for the vaccine’s development to how little was provided for distributing the shots.
Bell said, “I think that the imbalance between that kind of money and the funding that has been provided for the vaccination programs and for implementation is really shocking and needs to be corrected because we are not going to be able to protect the American public if we don’t have a way to deliver the vaccines to them.”
