One Size Does Not Fit All
Those who think big government is the answer to everything will no doubt be shocked by this news, as reported by Politico yesterday.
They say the Biden administration is rethinking a costly system of government-run mass vaccination sites after data revealed the program is lagging well behind a much cheaper federal effort to distribute doses via retail pharmacies.
Let’s reset that point for a moment…the Biden folks thought massive cattle call sites would be great, and are finding that citizens across the country would prefer to go a place they know and trust…like their neighborhood pharmacy. Guessing most of you would have figured that out without making the mistake to begin with.
Politico notes that the government has shipped millions of doses to the 21 mass vaccination hubs, known as pilot community centers, in states with large metro areas such as California, Florida, New York, Illinois, Massachusetts and Texas. These hubs are part of a $4 billion federal system that funds more than 1,000 smaller vaccination locations across the country, and provides other vaccination support such as supplies to states directly.
FEMA did not respond to Politico’s repeated requests to learn how much the failed pilot sites cost.
Despite the money the federal government has spent on the mass-vaccination pilot sites, they are administering just a fraction of the shots given across the country each day. The retail pharmacy program, which has signed up 21 chains and 17,000 stores, can reach far more Americans in a shorter time, according to senior officials.
This is also hardly surprising when you consider that during the campaign, Biden and Harris demonized anything the Trump Administration was doing on the vaccine front…which must not have been that bad, since that’s why we even have vaccines to begin with. But by making it seem the federal government was wrong…they now have to pull an about face and say “we’re the government now, so trust us”.
How’s that working so far?
