Funding, staff shortages force health officials to choose between testing, vaccination sites

Health officials around the U.S. are deciding between running testing sites or vaccination sites since they don't have enough staff or funding to run both, The Hill reports. 

Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., told The Hill he spoke with health officials in Stamford, Conn., who said they "don't have enough money right now to be able to both keep up their testing and distribute vaccine, so they're going to have to make a choice."

The city of Los Angeles closed its largest testing site at Dodger Stadium to convert it into a vaccination site. The city acknowledged the change would "temporarily reduce testing capacity in L.A. County," but would also more than triple the number of vaccines available for residents every day, The Hill reported. 

Collier County, Fla., also closed most of its testing sites for vaccination sites, according to The Hill. 

"If the tradeoff is testing or vaccinations, then that’s a false tradeoff," Thomas Tsai, MD, a professor at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told The Hill. "There does need to be dedicated testing support and funding."

Read the full article here.

 

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