Health expert reveals how Trump's administration is repeating its COVID-19 failures with vaccine rollout
Public health expert Dr. Ashish Jha explained why he's frustrated with the distribution of the coronavirus vaccine so far -- and revealed who's to blame.
Jha, who serves as dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, told MSNBC's "Morning Joe" the federal government promised 20 million doses of the vaccine, but he said millions of doses sit unused in hospitals because distribution hasn't been properly coordinated.
"The federal government has does a very good job for setting up the infrastructure to get the vaccines out the states, but very little in the way of helping states get the vaccines into people's arms," Jha said. "States are really stretched, they have gotten little money. The latest COVID relief bill finally gets some dollars to states, which will help, but states are trying to figure this all out on their own, and 50 states figuring out vaccinations on their own -- this is a repeat of testing, of PPE, and at each step the federal government hasn't done its part in this partnership."
"We do want states to play an important role," he added. "States know a lot about their own populations much better than the federal government does, that's all true. But the bottom line is, in the national crisis, we don't say to every state, 'Hey, good luck, figure this out.' When we got into World War II, President Roosevelt didn't say to every state, 'Hey, make sure you've got to build up your own defenses and good luck to you.' Like, the federal government has a really important role here, [and] they're not doing that on getting people vaccinated in a way that's necessary."
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