Marisa and Phil Taylor

WASHINGTON, (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services appears unprepared for full responsibility of the country’s COVID-19 vaccination program. This includes activities that are currently being managed by the Pentagon.

Reporters point out that HHS did not have sufficient staff, or an appropriate timeline to take over additional responsibilities. The COVID-19 vaccine program, dubbed “Operation Warp Speed,” by the Trump administration in May 2020, involved hundreds of officials from multiple agencies.

More than $30 billion has been spent by the program to create, manufacture, and purchase vaccines. Moderna (NASDAQ:) Inc Pfizer Inc (NYSE 🙂 and German Partner BioNTech SE(NASDAQ 🙂 which have been used for inoculating almost 200 million Americans.

It oversees the funding and approval of any COVID-19-related vaccines or treatments. In May 2021, the Biden administration ordered HHS to begin assuming responsibilities of the program shared with the Department of Defense (DOD) by the end of 2021, according to the report by Congress’ auditing agency, the Government Accountability Office (GAO).

GAO said that HHS wasn’t ready to assume control of the program, despite the fact that the majority of current Pentagon responsibilities (including coordinating vaccination distribution, protecting the doses and providing legal advice for federal agencies affected by the effort) had been transferred to HHS late last year.

HHS/DOD will be less prepared if the HHS is not fully ready, which could lead to interruptions in ongoing work such as dealing with vaccine boosters and any COVID-19 variants.

HHS did not have sufficient workforce capacity nor set up a schedule to handle remaining activities in vaccine production, manufacturing and distribution. This could lead to a risk of losing capabilities.

GAO is an independent agency that was mandated by Congress to review the management of federal programs. It declined to comment. The agency prepared the report at the request of the House of Representatives’ COVID subcommittee and is expected to publish it soon.

Questions about HHS’ ability to fully take over vaccine and therapeutic efforts comes as the Biden administration grapples with a record surge https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-reports-nearly-1-mln-covid-19-cases-day-setting-global-record-2022-01-04 in COVID-19 due to the rapidly spreading Omicron variant that is disrupting returns to schools and businesses after the winter holidays.

A spokesperson for HHS stated that the transition was “successfully completed” on January 1.

According to the spokesperson, “Institutionalizing the functions within HHS will ensure we can build on the progress made so far, maintain expertise and skill (including many DOD employees who transferred to HHS), continue providing the required tools for the American people to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.” However, the spokesperson refused to comment on the Pentagon’s involvement in the program.

UNPRECEDENTED VISION HHS established the office of the assistant secretary to prepare for and respond (ASPR) in order to supervise pandemic response. Trump relied heavily upon the Pentagon’s assistance to assist with unprecedented tasks of producing, buying and distributing vaccines in all 50 states. This was just months after the outbreak of the coronavirus.

GAO reported that 76 military personnel had been assigned by DOD to the program as of September last year. A spokesperson for Pentagon told Reuters that “HHS” has taken over the COVID-19 vaccine-therapeutic mission. He added that DOD still awards COVID contracts to HHS for medical supplies and “continues to offer limited training in a handful of areas to help ensure HHS workers have all the information and tools necessary to succeed.” HHS is not receiving any assistance from the Pentagon regarding vaccine transport.

According to a top federal official who has knowledge about the operation of the program, even though HHS may not have fully taken over all responsibility for the transition, the Pentagon would help. An unnamed official with knowledge of the program’s operations called December 31, an “aspirational deadline” and was not permitted to discuss it.

According to the official, “If HHS really isn’t prepared to assume all the responsibilities”, the government will not let the ball drop. The Pentagon is willing to assist contractors. However, it has yet to agree on other shared responsibilities. “Therefore it’s unclear what this support might entail and for how long,” GAO stated. Even with Pentagon support, a Reuters examination https://www.reuters.com/world/the-great-reboot/us-rushed-contracts-covid-19-suppliers-with-troubled-plants-2021-12-02 revealed problems with oversight of the contracts for COVID-19 vaccines, therapeutics, tests and other medical products.

Reuters discovered that less than 20% of companies who were awarded contracts had experience as manufacturers and maintained a clean FDA record in their U.S. facilities over the past two years. Four out of five of those five also did not have U.S. manufacturing experiences, low domestic inspection results, or severe recalls prior to their award.