MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell theorized on her Wednesday show that the reason that the number of vaccines given out was below the goal of 20 million by year's end was because of federalism and the lack of a singe payer-type system akin to the British or Canadian system.
Mitchell inquired of MSNBC medial correspondent Dr. Jonathan Torres, "There's no question that the military is doing its job. They are getting the doses to the states. The issue is, is the federal government doing enough to facilitate getting people vaccinated once they get to the states?"
In a lengthy answer, Torres argued that the federal government should not only be involved in manufacturing and distribution of the vaccine, but more involved in administrating it: "That means somebody centrally at the federal level needs to control that or at least make sure it's happening."
This led Mitchell to attack two of the country's two defining characteristics: federalism and capitalism.
"It is our system of federalism and states' rights and also for instance in the U.K. and Canada, they have the National Health Service so they have a ready-made way of tracking and bringing people together and distributing something like this in a very orderly fashion," she griped.
To fact-check Mitchell, Canada is also a federal system relying on provinces to distribute the vaccine. Additionally Canada, despite having universally "free" health care, does not have a national equivalent to the NHS. Rather, Canadian health care is run by the provinces. A final fact-check of Mitchell would show that Britain's vaccine distribution policy is also decentralized.
Mitchell's ignorance of how Canada actually governs itself and how the Brits are administering the vaccine was not just important because of ill-informed attempts to push socialism, but her insistence that the lack of Washington-run health care was why the numbers were increasingly slowly.
And yet, the United States is currently fourth in the world in vaccines administered per 100 people behind only Britain, Bahrain, and Israel, which are much smaller geographically. Canada ranks fifth, at a rate over three times smaller than that of the U.S.
Mitchell would then wonder: "How well are we tracking the people who need their second doses? And also who's gotten Moderna versus Pfizer, you know, down the road, a year from now, they need to know medically who got which vaccine in order to follow up."
After noting that he's received a card stating which vaccine he was administered, Dr. Amesh Adalja concurred: "It’s not just developing the vaccine and getting it to the states. It’s the entire administration of the program, which is something very different from what the military does. This is more what public health does and what individual doctors and health systems do. So they need the support. That's where this gap is, where it's not connecting, is the distribution of the vaccine to the actual delivery of the vaccine."
He later added that in "many states, only 20 percent of their vaccines have been actually given to people, so there's a problem right now and we need to address it and fix it."
Unfortunately, what that has do with having an single payer health care system was never discussed.
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Here is the relevant transcript:
MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell Reports
December 20, 2020
12:19 PM ETANDREA MITCHELL: There's no question that the military is doing its job. They are getting the doses to the states. The issue is, is the federal government doing enough to facilitate getting people vaccinated once they get to the states?
JONATHAN TORRES: And I think what you heard there is him talking about developing, manufacturing, and distributing the vaccine, which is what Operation Warp Speed has focused on and the military has certainly assisted with. But then you have the preparation and administration part of it as well and there seems to be a disconnect between those two parts. So until you get that -- the -- the administration part of it done, where people are actually getting their shots connected up to the distribution part, you're going to have these low numbers happening right now. And like I mentioned earlier, in some countries, you're seeing mass vaccination events happening. One thing this country's been very good at in the past, if you look at World War I, World War II, is mobilizing our entire industry, mobilizing our country behind one cause in an emergency. This should be the cause we mobilize the country behind and say, we need to get these vaccines in people's arms, we need to get them to where they need to be and we need to get people shots as quickly as possible, let's do what it takes to do that. That means somebody centrally at the federal level needs to control that or at least make sure it's happening.
MITCHELL: And of course, Dr. Adalja, it is our system of federalism and states' rights and also for instance in the U.K. and Canada, they have the National Health Service so they have a ready-made way of tracking and bringing people together and distributing something like this in a very orderly fashion. What comes to mind now is, how well are we tracking the people who need their second doses? And also who's gotten Moderna versus Pfizer, you know, down the road, a year from now, they need to know medically who got which vaccine in order to follow up.
AMESH ADALJA: This is going to be a very hard data management challenge. I know when I got my vaccine, coming up about maybe ten days ago, I received a card that told me that I had the Pfizer vaccine and told me when my second dose is due and I registered with the CDC V-Safe app, which helps you do that. I don't know how many people are doing it. This is something a lot of us anticipated would be difficult, especially as we now have another vaccine approved in the United States, the Moderna vaccine, making sure that people are in the right line, making sure that they're coming back in the right time. One of them is a three-week interval. One of them is a four-week interval. All of that is going to be very challenging and this is the challenge of a vaccination program. It’s not just developing the vaccine and getting it to the states. It’s the entire administration of the program, which is something very different from what the military does. This is more what public health does and what individual doctors and health systems do. So they need the support. That's where this gap is, where it's not connecting, is the distribution of the vaccine to the actual delivery of the vaccine. And that's where we want to make sure there's funding, that there's support, that there's guidance from the federal government to make this happen smoothly because as I said before, it's not going to do anybody any good if states aren't able to actually vaccinate people with the vaccines that they've been distributed. Many states, only 20 percent of their vaccines have been actually given to people, so there's a problem right now and we need to address it and fix it.
