Local funding crisis threatens U.S. vaccine rollout

Local funding crisis threatens U.S. vaccine rollout Seattle public health officials have so little COVID-19 funding on hand they worry they will have to shut down some virus testing sites as they mount a campaign to dose their 2.3 million residents with Pfizer Inc's and Moderna Inc's vaccines. Carl O’Donnell, Rebecca Spalding U.S.

NEW YORK (Reuters) -Seattle public health officials have so little COVID-19 funding on hand they worry they will have to shut down some virus testing sites as they mount a campaign to dose their 2.3 million residents with Pfizer Inc’s and Moderna Inc’s vaccines.

King County, which represents greater Seattle, has $14 million of COVID-19 funding for 2021, roughly what it spends in a month to run public testing sites and other services, and a fraction of the $87 million emergency COVID-19 aid it received in 2020, said Ingrid Ulrey, the public health policy director for King County.

“We’ve been on pins and needles the whole last three or four months, watching what’s happening at the federal level, waiting, watching,” she said. When newly approved federal funds finally trickle down to her level, she expects them to be less than this year, insufficient and too late.

“It’s shockingly low,” she added. “We have a huge new, unprecedented, daunting task of vaccine delivery.” King County is at risk of being unable to hire the up to 40 additional nurses and administrators needed to begin the next wave of public vaccinations.

In counties across the United States, the funding crisis has limited the hiring of needed vaccine staff, delayed the creation of vaccination centers, and undermined efforts to raise public awareness, officials told Reuters.

The federal government spent more than $10 billion to speed COVID-19 vaccine development but has so far disbursed little funding for distribution, even as it pushed the responsibility of actual immunizations onto state and local governments.

A new $2.3 trillion pandemic aid and spending package provides $8.75 billion to states to assist in vaccinations, in line with what state and local officials had requested, but months after distribution work should have begun.

“The Federal Government has distributed the vaccines to the states. Now it is up to the states to administer. Get moving!” U.S. President Donald Trump tweeted on Wednesday. ...