Viewpoint

The Trump administration’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic was an unquestionable failure. My fellow Democratic guvs and I were left to fill the galling void of leadership– enacting commonsense face mask mandates for public spaces, motivating people to not gather or travel, combating to get individual protective equipment to frontline workers and first responders and a lot more.

However these efforts were always incomplete without the resources and wherewithal only the federal government of the United States of America can offer. Luckily, hope is on the horizon. With the Biden administration taking the reins, we are moving into a new stage where we can and will get our arms around the tremendous logistical difficulties of vaccine distribution and eventually end this heinous pandemic.

The outgoing administration left a mess of conflicting and partial info, with states working desperately to arrange a fair and orderly distribution while lacking necessary info to assist constituents and distributors make plans for their shots.

It was just recently guvs discovered the vaccine stock the Trump administration suggested would be offered did not, in fact, exist. This was a vicious– but we can not state totally unforeseen– last slap in the face to Americans who have been yearning for honest and responsible leadership.

It need to be said that the Biden administration is not so much revamping an existing technique as they are developing one from scratch. Governors like me have done what we can, to this point, to establish a cohesive circulation method, utilizing suggestions from ACIP and the CDC and identifying third-party partners to help with the circulation of item.

And while I like to extol my fellow Democratic guvs, the states that have prospered up until now in distributing both first and 2nd shots– like New Mexico, which has ranked in the top 5 nationally for per-capita circulation, according to CDC data— are led by a mix of Democratic and Republican guvs.

It’s a patchwork of techniques. This is nobody’s idea of an effective procedure. By need, specifies across the nation have actually been building the aircraft as we fly it– and each people are developing our own aircraft.

A woman is injected with the coronavirus vaccine in the car park of 6 Flags on February 6, 2021, in Bowie, Maryland.
Sarah Silbiger/Getty Images

A unified technique, in which mentions plan on dose circulations, might map out which groups and where would be able to get their shots based on advance notice.

The Biden administration plans to utilize FEMA to develop mass vaccination centers in collaboration with states and committed the full force of the federal government to end the pandemic.

Michelle Lujan Grisham is the governor of New Mexico and is chair of the Democratic Governors Association.

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