Trump official says vaccine expected starting in January; More Vt. schools move to more in-person learning

By Juliet Linderman, Martha Mendoza, Kathy Mccormack, Holly Ramer And Patrick Whittle
Associated Press
A Trump administration official leading the response to the coronavirus pandemic says the U.S. can expect delivery of a vaccine starting in January 2021, despite statements from the president that inoculations could begin this month.

And a growing, bipartisan chorus of lawmakers, experts and public health officials says the country is ill prepared for a projected winter surge of COVID-19.

Dr. Robert Kadlec said in an email Friday that the administration “is accelerating production of safe and effective vaccines … to ensure delivery starting January 2021.” Kadlec is the Department of Health and Human Services’ assistant secretary of preparedness and response. HHS says a vaccine could be approved before the end of the year but will take time to distribute.

President Donald Trump has said at rallies, debates and press conferences that a vaccine could arrive within weeks. “We think we can start sometime in October,” Trump said at a White House press briefing last month.

Kadlec wasn’t the first health official to counter the president’s optimistic timeline. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Thursday that there could be 100 million vaccine doses available by the end of the year “pending FDA authorizations.” And Dr. Moncef Slaoui, who is leading the government’s vaccine effort, told Marketwatch on Friday that researchers could know “by late October, or November, or in December” whether one of the vaccines in development is effective, but that it would then take weeks to get emergency authorization to administer it.

When asked about the disparity, the White House was not specific on a date but said Trump’s priority is to distribute a vaccine “as soon as possible.” Kadlec said, without elaborating, that it wasn’t correct to conclude that this meant the country couldn’t see a vaccine sooner than January.

Kadlec was responding to a series of questions from The Associated Press and FRONTLINE about the administration’s response to the pandemic and, in particular, about shortages of critical medical supplies.

The AP and FRONTLINE reported earlier this week that a breakdown in the supply chain for critical medical equipment including masks, gloves, gowns and ventilators hobbled the U.S. response to COVID-19 and was likely a factor in the country’s death rate, which is higher per capita than almost every other country in the world.

Experts say those shortages could now extend to the syringes, needles and glass vials that are vital to a future nationwide vaccination program.

Kadlec agrees that supply chain disruptions led to shortages. He said the administration needs more, consistent, flexible funding from Congress to shore up the Strategic National Stockpile of medical supplies and drugs and expand domestic manufacturing.

“There seems to be universal consensus from both sides of the aisle in Congress, from the health care sector and from the manufacturing base, that it is critical to move from a just-in-time manufacturing model to a more flexible and resilient domestic manufacturing capability,” he said.

Health experts have called for the same changes but say there’s a vacuum of federal leadership to implement them right now.

“Having a single national coordinated strategy would help ensure that states, hospitals, physician offices and other facilities have a single, centralized authority to work through to acquire essential personal protective equipment,” American Medical Association President Dr. Susan Bailey told the AP and FRONTLINE on Thursday. “The burn rate of personal protective equipment and medical supplies has been far greater than anything that we have experienced and for a far longer time, and the need for PPE and testing supplies will continue for the foreseeable future.”

The collapse of the medical supply chain wasn’t unexpected: For decades, politicians and corporate officials ignored warnings about the risks associated with America’s overdependence on foreign manufacturing and a lack of adequate preparation at home.

Of the hundreds of COVID-19 related bills introduced in Congress this year, only a handful seek to resolve supply chain issues; none of those has reached the president.

“We need to claw back our medical supply chain back to the U.S.,” said Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., who has sponsored bills to bolster the U.S. pharmaceutical manufacturing base.

Roughly nine months into the pandemic, health care workers and even the Government Accountability Office report there still isn’t enough protective equipment for frontline workers or adequate coordination from the federal government. And although there are emergency preparedness and response plans in place, implementation has been inconsistent.

“We went into this pandemic unprepared, and we remain so months later,” said Boris Lushniak, former acting surgeon general in the Obama administration. “It is time to reevaluate the complete medical supply chain in the U.S. The federal government needs to take on the leadership role here.”

Across the country, public health leaders are warning about the coming months.

“A cohesive national plan for equitably distributing PPE has still not been proposed, let alone implemented,” said Harvard Medical School professor Dr. Andrew T. Chan, who found Black, Hispanic and Asian health care workers had the highest risk of contracting COVID-19. “Thus, we will continue to fly by the seat of our pants with our fingers crossed for the foreseeable future.”

Michael Lu, dean of University of California, Berkeley’s school of public health, said one important part of the solution lies in a bipartisan bill fast tracked in the Senate that would rebuild the Strategic National Stockpile and strengthen U.S. manufacturing of medical masks, gowns and other protective gear.

“We weren’t ready for the pandemic,” Lu said. “And we are still not ready.”

Here are the latest developments regarding the ongoing novel coronavirus pandemic throughout New England:

New Hampshire

A woman says her fifth grade son was kicked off a school bus for the rest of the year because of a mask-wearing infraction.

Leilani Provencal posted a photo of an “inappropriate bus behavior notification” slip on Facebook, which said her son, Brody Heath, 9, had not worn his mask over his nose.

The slip said it was Heath’s second offense for prohibited behavior on the bus. But Provencal told the Caledonian-Record the first warning her son received was for using an electronic device, not for wearing his mask incorrectly.

Provencal said her son, who goes to school in Monroe, lowered his mask Tuesday after accepting a mint from a friend, and that she’s struggling to understand how there’s no tolerance for a child making a mistake.

“I’ve tried really hard to get my head around this and it just doesn’t make sense,” she wrote in the Facebook post.

Provencal told the newspaper she called the bus company who told her they had a zero tolerance policy for safety infractions related to the pandemic.

Messages were left Friday with the bus company, JPI Transportation, and school officials.

Provencal said she was told by school board members that the school district could not alter bus company policy, but that the issue could be discussed at the next board meeting, on Oct. 19.

Portsmouth police: At least 16 police employees have been quarantined as a precaution after two officers tested positive for COVID-19, the chief of the Portsmouth Police Department said.

Both the officers work in the detectives office; exposure was limited to that office and the court office, Chief Mark Newport told Seacoastonline.com.

Newport said he was one of two ranking police officers who had tested positive last month, but he didn’t show any symptoms. He said he was quarantined for two weeks and did not pass it to anyone. He’s back at work, as well as the second officer.

The numbers: As of Friday, a total of 8,970 people had tested positive for the virus in New Hampshire, an increase of 97 from the previous day. One new deaths was announced, bringing the total to 450.

The seven-day rolling average of daily new cases in New Hampshire has risen over the past two weeks from 26 new cases per day on Sept. 25 to 49 new cases per day Friday.

For most people, the coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia or death.

Vermont

Vermont officials say the continued low prevalence of the coronavirus in the state is allowing more of the state’s schools to move to more in-person learning.

During the Friday virus briefing, Education Secretary Daniel French said that while there have been a handful of cases reported in Vermont schools, there have been no cases of the virus being transmitted in Vermont schools.

As an example of one districts opening up he cited the Mill River Unified School District, which is made up of the towns of Shrewsbury, Tinmouth and Wallingford and will be resuming in-person learning later this month. Since school resumed last month, the district had been fully remote.

“I think things are starting to feel more normal in our districts because of all the hard work people put in to the preparations over the summer,” French said. “They’ve planned well and they are now feeling more comfortable operating their schools in these conditions.”

He says a survey is being done to know how other schools are responding. He expects to have the results of that survey by next Friday.

“Even with a vaccine, however, I expect our schools will be operating with these necessary precautions for some time, if not for the remainder of the school year,” he said.

He said he expected guidance for winter sports would come out by the end of the month. He said he was not optimistic about finding a way to resume wrestling this winter, but officials are still looking for ways to allow basketball and hockey.

Orchard outbreak: Health Commissioner Dr. Mark Levine said the virus outbreak of migrant apple pickers at the Champlain Orchards in Shoreham is continuing to be monitored.

He said the 28 workers who tested positive are in isolation and none of the workers are currently hospitalized for treatment of COVID-19. He says there is no threat to the community.

The workers are currently being housed at the orchard, but if needed the state will be ready to provide alternative housing, Levine said.

The numbers: On Friday, the Vermont Health Department reported eight new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Of the new cases, three were in Windsor County, two were in Chittenden County, and one each in Rutland, Bennington and Addison counties.

No COVID-19 patients are currently being treated in Vermont hospitals.

The number of COVID-19 deaths in Vermont remains at 58. The state of Vermont has not had a COVID-19 fatality in more than two months.

Maine

People seeking to get outdoors during the pandemic have helped set a record at Maine’s 12 state park campgrounds.

The season isn’t yet over, but there have been at least 270,794 campers through Sept. 30. That already topped the previous record of 261,589 campers in 2018.

It’s especially impressive since the parks opened two to four weeks later, and missed the busy Memorial Day weekend, the Portland Press Herald reported.

Andy Cutko, director of the Maine Bureau of Parks and Lands, said many people realized that “being outside was one of the safest places to be.”

Maine’ state park campgrounds will be open through this weekend, and longer if there’s good weather.

The numbers: The Maine Center for Disease Control reported 32 new coronavirus cases and one death on Friday.

That brings the total number of cases in Maine to 5,666 and the number of deaths to 143, officials said.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia and death.