States take back hundreds of thousands of vaccine doses held in federal long-term care program
CNNCNN — Hundreds of thousands of Covid-19 vaccine doses are shifting to states after they weren’t used by the federal program to vaccinate long-term care facility residents and staff. “ On Tuesday, Walgreen’s Chief Medical Officer Dr. Kevin Ban told CNN’s Chris Cuomo, “We found ourselves in a situation where we had more vaccine than we needed – the last thing we would do was ever hold it – and so immediately what we did was get in touch with the states to make sure that we were compliant with their wishes. “ But the federal program reported directly to the CDC, and states say they were often in the dark about progress at long-term care facilities, said Lori Freeman, CEO of the National Association of County and City Health Officials. In a call with governors last week, Biden administration officials told states that they should be reallocating vaccines that had been earmarked for the federal program that hadn’t been used within a week of delivery.