Key House Oversight Panel to Investigate Delays in Vaccine Distribution

Press Release

A key House oversight panel, led by U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette (D-CO), will hold a hearing next week to determine why it's taking longer than expected to administer COVID-19 vaccines to millions of Americans throughout the country.

The House Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations panel's hearing comes as the U.S. struggles to control the spread of the virus, and as the new Biden administration looks for ways to speed up distribution of the vaccine.

According to CDC, as of January 28, the federal government has distributed 48.4 million doses of vaccine to states, territories, and tribes throughout the country. Of those, 26.2 million doses have been administered.

"This upcoming hearing will give us an opportunity to understand what's holding up our efforts to distribute this vaccine throughout the country as quickly as possible," said DeGette"It will give us a chance to hear directly from state and local health officials, who are on the ground, about the challenges they face in getting the vaccine into the arms of more Americans sooner, and what the federal government can do to improve that effort."

According to recent projections, the federal government will need to increase the average number of vaccinations being administered throughout the country each day from roughly 1 million shots per day to 1.3 million doses daily to vaccinate all U.S. adults by the end of 2021.

Among the health officials set to testify are Jill Hunsaker Ryan, from the Colorado Department of Health, and West Virginia's Coronavirus Czar, Dr. Clay Marsh.

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