Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility
Pentagon Deploys Troops to Fuel COVID Vaccine Drive
gvw_ap_news
By Associated Press
Published 4 years ago on
February 5, 2021

Share

WASHINGTON — The Pentagon will deploy more than 1,100 troops to five vaccination centers in what will be the first wave of increased military support for the White House campaign to get more Americans vaccinated against COVID-19.

President Joe Biden has called for setting up 100 mass vaccination centers around the country within a month. Two of the five new military teams will go to vaccination centers opening in California. Coronavirus senior adviser Andy Slavitt said military personnel will arrive at those centers in a little over a week. Three additional centers are expected to be announced soon.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency has asked the Pentagon to supply as many as 10,000 service members to staff 100 centers. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin approved the initial five teams, but the others will be approved in separate tranches as FEMA identifies the other site locations.

Military Teams Can Give 6,000 Shots a Day

Each of the five military teams includes 222 personnel, including 80 who will give the vaccines, as well as nurses and other support staff. The teams would be able to provide about 6,000 shots a day.

The five teams represent a growing use of the active duty military to a vaccination campaign that already involves nearly 100 National Guard teams in 29 states across the country. National Guard leaders told The Associated Press that they are now considering training additional Guard members to give shots, so that they can also expand vaccinations in more remote and rural portions of their states.

Gen. Dan Hokanson, chief of the National Guard Bureau, said the Guard has the ability to field about 200 additional teams. Training other medical personnel to give the vaccination shots, he said, would potentially provide more.

“If we reach the point where we’ve fully implemented all of our folks who can (give shots), then they’re looking at potential training opportunities if we’re going to need more than that,” said Hokanson. “We’re going to do everything to make a difference and meet whatever that need is.”

The Pentagon has said that the FEMA teams could be a mix of active duty, National Guard and Reserves. But Hokanson and Maj. Gen. Jerry Fenwick, director of the Guard’s Office of the Joint Surgeon, said that at this point, the FEMA teams are more likely going to be filled largely by active duty troops. The Guard, they said, will probably be tapped by their governors for use in their own states. are more likely to be used in remote, rural locations.

Guard leaders said the close to 100 mobile vaccination teams already active are delivering more than 50,000 shots a day.

“As more vaccines come on line, there’s surely going to be more demand for vaccinators,” said Fenwick.

Guard Members Will Operate in Their Own States, for Now

Pentagon officials have made it clear that they are being careful about tapping National Guard and Reserves, because in many cases those service members are already working in medical jobs in their civilian lives at local hospitals and medical centers. Hokanson noted that while the Guard could staff as many as 600 vaccine teams, he has to cut that number about in half because of those types of civilian job restrictions.

He said that so far Guard members are only operating in their own states, but could go to neighboring states if needed in the future, as long as they have enough teams.

The troop deployment came as Biden invoked a Cold War-era law called the Defense Production Act to help bolster manufacturing of vaccines, at-home COVID-19 testing kits and nitrile gloves used by health care workers and vaccinators. Referred to as the DPA, the law in essence allows the government to assign missions to private companies during national emergencies.

Tim Manning, the White House’s COVID-19 supply coordinator, said the administration was looking to help drugmaker Pfizer clear a bottleneck around fill-and-finish capabilities with vaccine production by giving the drugmaker first priority to access needed supplies.

More Home COVID Tests on Horizon

Manning said also said the government is investing in six manufacturers to develop at-home and point-of-care COVID-19 tests, with the goal of producing 60 million tests by the end of the summer. Earlier in the week, the White House announced a $230 million contract with Ellume, manufacturer of an at-home test approved by the Food and Drug Administration. No prescription is required for the over-the-counter test.

“The country is well behind where we need to be in testing,” said Manning. Due to contract issues, he said he could not yet reveal the names of the companies.

Another round of contracts will build capacity to produce surgical gloves in the U.S., including processing the raw materials for the gloves. There were widespread shortages at the start of the pandemic last year.

Manning said the goal is to produce more than 1 billion nitrile gloves domestically by the end of this year.

Currently about 6.9 million Americans have received the full two-dose regimen required to get maximum protection from the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines. That translates to about 2% of the U.S. population.

To reach widespread or “herd” immunity — about 70% to 85% of Americans must be vaccinated. The U.S. is in a race with the virus, which is also spawning mutations that may prove resistant to vaccines.

RELATED TOPICS:

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Thousands of Pilgrims Trek Through New Mexico Desert to Historic Adobe Church for Good Friday

DON'T MISS

Rams’ Draft Headquarters to Be at LAFD Air Base to Honor First Responders to Wildfires

DON'T MISS

The US Has a Single Rare Earths Mine. Chinese Export Limits Are Energizing a Push for More

DON'T MISS

A Startling Admission From a GOP Senator: ‘We Are All Afraid’

DON'T MISS

Trump Administration Kicks off Plan for Expanded Offshore Drilling

DON'T MISS

Google to Appeal Against Part of US Court’s Decision in Monopoly Case

DON'T MISS

How to Catch the Shooting Stars of Spring’s First Meteor Shower, the Lyrids

DON'T MISS

US Intel Contradicts Trump Claims Linking Gang to Venezuelan Government

DON'T MISS

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Is Speeding Toward Another Close Encounter With an Asteroid

DON'T MISS

The Abrego Garcia Case Pulls Democrats Into the Immigration Debate Trump Wants to Have

UP NEXT

Supreme Court to Hear Arguments on Trump Plan to End Birthright Citizenship

UP NEXT

Popular AIs Head-to-Head: OpenAI Beats DeepSeek on Sentence-Level Reasoning

UP NEXT

Al Sharpton Calls Meeting With Target’s CEO Amid DEI Backlash ‘Very Constructive and Candid’

UP NEXT

Former Pentagon Spokesman Tied to Online DEI Purge Was Asked to Resign

UP NEXT

The Kings Agree to Hire Scott Perry as General Manager, AP Source Says

UP NEXT

Shooting at Florida State Sends Students Running; Nearby Hospital Says It’s Treating People

UP NEXT

Actor Michelle Trachtenberg Died of Complications From Diabetes, Says NYC Medical Examiner

UP NEXT

Zoom Down for Thousands of Users, Downdetector Shows

UP NEXT

Puerto Rico Goes Dark After Widespread Power Plant Failure

UP NEXT

Harper and Realmuto Homer to Help Lead the Phillies to a Win Over the Giants

A Startling Admission From a GOP Senator: ‘We Are All Afraid’

31 minutes ago

Trump Administration Kicks off Plan for Expanded Offshore Drilling

34 minutes ago

Google to Appeal Against Part of US Court’s Decision in Monopoly Case

37 minutes ago

How to Catch the Shooting Stars of Spring’s First Meteor Shower, the Lyrids

40 minutes ago

US Intel Contradicts Trump Claims Linking Gang to Venezuelan Government

44 minutes ago

NASA’s Lucy Spacecraft Is Speeding Toward Another Close Encounter With an Asteroid

52 minutes ago

The Abrego Garcia Case Pulls Democrats Into the Immigration Debate Trump Wants to Have

1 hour ago

Katy Perry Gears Up for Sci-Fi Inspired World Tour

1 hour ago

10,000 Pages of Records About Robert F. Kennedy’s 1968 Assassination Are Released

1 hour ago

Valley Crime Stoppers’ Most Wanted Person of the Day: Tien Hoang Nguyen

1 hour ago

Thousands of Pilgrims Trek Through New Mexico Desert to Historic Adobe Church for Good Friday

SANTA FE, N.M. — A unique Holy Week tradition is drawing thousands of Catholic pilgrims to a small adobe church in the hills of northern New...

22 minutes ago

22 minutes ago

Thousands of Pilgrims Trek Through New Mexico Desert to Historic Adobe Church for Good Friday

26 minutes ago

Rams’ Draft Headquarters to Be at LAFD Air Base to Honor First Responders to Wildfires

30 minutes ago

The US Has a Single Rare Earths Mine. Chinese Export Limits Are Energizing a Push for More

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) walks out of the Senate chamber on Capitol Hill in Washington, Feb. 20, 2025. Murkowski, who has routinely broken with her party to criticize President Donald Trump, has made a startling admission about the reality of serving in public office at a time when an unbound leader in the Oval Office is bent on retribution against his political foes. (Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times)
31 minutes ago

A Startling Admission From a GOP Senator: ‘We Are All Afraid’

President Donald Trump looks on on the day he signs executive orders in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 17, 2025. (REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein)
34 minutes ago

Trump Administration Kicks off Plan for Expanded Offshore Drilling

37 minutes ago

Google to Appeal Against Part of US Court’s Decision in Monopoly Case

40 minutes ago

How to Catch the Shooting Stars of Spring’s First Meteor Shower, the Lyrids

44 minutes ago

US Intel Contradicts Trump Claims Linking Gang to Venezuelan Government

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend