How the government is handling the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, Biden admin. outlook

Brian Gragnolati, Atlantic Health System CEO and American Hospital Association chairman joins Yahoo Finance to discuss the latest COVID-19 news.

Video Transcript

- Let's turn our attention now back to the rollout of the coronavirus vaccine. Certainly some confusion going on here. The Trump administration now saying they will release the second doses of those vaccines, calling on states to give the vaccines to those who are 65 and older, as well as patients with pre-existing conditions. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar saying that vaccine manufacturing is moving quickly enough to allow for both those doses as well as patients getting the second doses who are now in line for that.

Let's bring in Brian Gragnolati. He's the Atlanta Health-- Atlantic Health System CEO, American Hospital Association Chairman. We've also got Anjalee Khemlani who's joining in on the conversation.

And Brian, let's start with that right now, this change that we've seen in the plan for the vaccine rollout. How quickly do you think that speeds up the process at a time when it seems like it's been a bit bumpy in the first few weeks, in trying to get to that huge number or be able to get enough people vaccinated in order to achieve herd immunity?

BRIAN GRAGNOLATI: Our biggest issue so far has been getting the vaccines from the government. States have struggled with that and certainly that's trickled down to those of us who are delivering that vaccine into people. But this is part of a larger problem that we've had with the government, whether it started with testing and continued on through PPE.

So we're looking forward to the changes that are going to be made. And we're particularly looking forward to the transition that's occurring so that we can really get everybody in this country who needs to be vaccinated vaccinated as quickly as possible. And we will respond to do that.

But we want to manage expectations around this. Because as we open up to greater than 65, or however else the CDC is going to give us that guidance, we're still going to have a supply problem. So we're going to move forward in conjunction with our states and our federal government. But this is clearly needed.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: Brian, Anjalee here. Good to speak with you again. I know that as a former chair of AHA, you've seen the overview of how complex it can be to wrangle in all 50 states and the additional jurisdictions. So right now, with the changes that came yesterday, is that enough to respond to the call for federal, basically dictation and government to be involved to help transition through all of this and to help with the distribution of vaccines, or is there still more guidance needed?

BRIAN GRAGNOLATI: So if you take a step back and look at this, the fact that we today, 10 months later, have two vaccines that are working and they're working very well is a miracle. And that took a lot of government intervention, through project Warp Speed, to be able to do that and financial support to the drug companies.

What I don't think has been done properly by the government is to really take control of then how this is going to be implemented. And right now we've got 50 different ways of doing it, in all of the states, and in some states have multiple ways. So we're looking forward to more guidance along with how we introduce this to more people. At the same time, we've got to have that support, including getting the vaccine on the ground. Because this cold chain that we have to work with with Pfizer is very complicated. But we have some candidate vaccines that are in the works right now which we hope will be simpler to distribute and to get to people.

So we need more federal guidance and a plan, and we're looking forward to that with the Biden administration.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: I know that one of those things, specifically on the vaccines, it's still going to be a little bit of time before we get to those next couple of doses, or companies. But in the meantime, dealing with the rollout as it is right now and also simultaneously with the cases, the surge that we're sort of experiencing right now, have you been able to sort of manage it operationally? Have there been significant changes since having to deal with it last year?

BRIAN GRAGNOLATI: Yeah. So in terms of caring for COVID patients, again, we are in the midst of this pandemic. And as you can see, it varies across the country. But here at Atlantic and in the New Jersey and New York area, we're about a third of where we were back in the spring. So that's actually a good piece of this story for us, because we know that things like masking, social distancing and those things work.

In terms of our challenges to stand up the vaccine program, this is what we do as health care providers. We do things like this and we've done it quite well. At Atlantic, we have multiple sites that have been set up. We just did a mega site in partnership with the state of New Jersey. And we're going to be able to get out in that site, and it's operational right now and it's ramping up, over 2,400 vaccines a day. So as we think about how do we distribute the vaccines, mobilizing the health care organizations, the pharmacies, and, at some point, the physicians' offices to do this is going to be what's required.

ANJALEE KHEMLANI: How much more help is needed from the state or from the government, and how much can you take on yourselves? Especially because we saw that with testing, it was still a pretty big burden. And with vaccinations, you need more, even more people involved.

BRIAN GRAGNOLATI: Testing still is a burden. testing is still a problem. And you and I had that conversation at the very beginning of this pandemic, in the middle of it, and even today. So the state of New Jersey has done a great job of collaborating with us. Because this is a team sport and this is about how we work together.

So what we need is that continued collaboration at the state level, which we will get from Governor Murphy. But we also need the federal government to step in and do the things it needs to do to get this vaccine on the ground, get the supply kits on the ground, and make sure that the regulations and rules that are being put in place, or the guidance that's put in place, makes common sense.

So I'm enthusiastic about seeing more vaccines coming in almost immediately. I'm enthusiastic about opening up the playing field more to people who need to get the vaccine more quickly. Because the more flexibility we have at the ground level, the more vaccine we can deliver.

ZACK GUZMAN: All right. The latest there from Brian Gragnolati, the Atlantic Health System CEO, alongside Yahoo Finance's Angela Khemlani. Appreciate you both for that.