“The CDC is set to purchase 20 million pediatric COVID-19 vaccines worth over $1.8 billion. The order was preemptively organized in June predicting a “surge” in September,” Winters on her X (formerly Twitter) on Thursday.
According to the contract, the CDC performed a “needs assessment” in July 2023, stating that approximately 16.75 million pediatric COVID-19 vaccines were required. This was a 15% increase from the vaccine amounts available in contracts awarded in June. However, the CDC didn’t leave time for open competition, citing “compressed timeframes” and “urgent need” as reasons.
One must question the intuition or data that led the CDC to such a well-timed prediction. The agency moved to finalize these contracts before even assessing the exact vaccine needs for September.
The CDC’s own documentation acknowledges the lack of competition in sourcing these vaccines. It indicates that “this compressed timeframe was created by several factors,” giving them inadequate time to open the contracts for competitive bidding.
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| Photo: Natalie Winters/X |
From the contract:
CDC’s three pediatric COVID-19 vaccine contracts were established to support the priority pediatric populations served by the Section 317 and VFC programs following the commercialization of COVID-19 vaccines, which is projected to occur in September 2023 following the end of the federal government’s national response vaccine program.
CDC’s July 2023 COVID-19 vaccine needs assessment established that approximately 16.75 million doses of pediatric COVID-19 vaccines were needed by CDC’s immunization awardee programs. This quantity exceeded the amount of pediatric vaccine available on CDC’s COVID-19 vaccine contracts, as awarded in June 2023, by approximately 15%. To address the unmet need, CDC modified two of its three pediatric COVID-19 vaccine contracts to increase the maximum ordering quantities on each contract.
The agency was unable to conduct even a limited competition because of the compressed timeframe under which the agency had to put these two modifications into place. This compressed timeframe was created by several factors.
First, CDC must begin the process of determining the appropriate funding obligation for each of these pediatric COVID-19 contracts in early August 2023 so sufficient funding is available upon the start of ordering in September 2023. Without an increase in the maximum ordering quantity for the two COVID-19 contracts, CDC cannot finalize its plan to allocate funding required for each contract to meet immunization awardee demands, per the July 2023 needs assessment.
Second, because COVID-19 vaccine manufacturers are finalizing their fall 2023 vaccine supply plans at this time, they must understand how many doses of vaccine are needed for CDC’s programs to incorporate our program needs into their planning. Without an increase in the maximum ordering quantity for each contract now, the manufacturers may not have sufficient supply of COVID-19 vaccines to fulfill CDC’s needs later in the ordering period. CDC must make these increases to the maximum ordering quantity now, otherwise it may not be able to obtain additional vaccine doses later.
Finally, CDC’s 64 immunization awardees need clarity as to whether their full needs for pediatric COVID-19 vaccines will be met through CDC’s vaccine programs to make critical budget and programmatic decisions. CDC must increase the maximum ordering quantities on these two contracts now, otherwise immunization awardees will have to make budget decisions assuming a lower quantity of vaccines will be available to order and that, subsequently, the awardees’ needs will not be completely met.
From the time that CDC completed its needs assessment at the end of July 2023, to the time at which these modifications needed to be in place by early August 2023, was a period of only 1-2 weeks. This was wholly insufficient time to solicit, evaluate, and award competitive contracts for these additional vaccine doses, even using a limited or streamlined competition. Modifications using other than full and open competition to increase the maximum ordering quantities on these two contracts were the only option to secure the additional vaccine doses required by CDC’s immunization awardees within the timeframe available to the agency.
As described in section 3 of this document, CDC conducted a needs assessment with its immunization awardees during July 2023 that established a need of 16.75 million doses of pediatric COVID-19 vaccines. This amount exceeded the quantity of vaccines available on the contracts as awarded in June 2023 of 14.50 million doses. In short, the volume of pediatric COVID-19 vaccines available to immunization awardees in the contracts awarded in June 2023 was not sufficient to meet the needs of the awardees.
Moreover, a delay in the award of these modifications would have likely led to this needs gap being locked in for the duration of the ordering period – whether from a delay in CDC allocating sufficient funding to the contracts to meet the full needs of awardees, the inability of manufacturers to meet later requests for additional doses, or awardees making budget and programmatic decisions premised on a lower quantity of vaccines being available than was actually needed.
Having established that an unusual and compelling urgency precluded full and open competition, the agency next turns to the serious injury to the Government that would have resulted had these contract modifications to increase the maximum ordering quantity been delayed.
The inability of CDC’s vaccine programs to meet immunization awardees’ needs for pediatric COVID-19 vaccines would have constituted a serious injury to the Government. Since its emergence, COVID-19’s evolving strains have contributed to significant pediatric illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths.
In a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association on January 30, 2023, COVID-19 was found to be the eighth most common cause of death among children in the United States, and the most common cause of death caused by infectious or respiratory diseases, overtaking the flu and pneumonia (https://jamanetwork.com/ journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2800816).
Not modifying the COVID-19 pediatric contracts to increase the maximum ordering quantity would have resulted an insufficient supply of vaccines to meet the needs of the VFC population and therefore decreased protection against COVID-19 among children. The consequences of this lower population protection include increases in preventable illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths among vulnerable U.S. children.
In addition, there would be an increased burden on the U.S. healthcare system during the winter 2023-2024 respiratory season. The increase in preventable COVID-19 pediatric morbidity and mortality, as well as the increased burden on the U.S. healthcare system, would have constituted a serious injury to
The crux of the matter is not just the size of the order but also the timing. The Gateway Pundit previously reported that the Biden regime is gearing up to reinstate comprehensive COVID-19 restrictions, starting with a renewed mask mandate for TSA and airport employees by mid-September.
The information was disclosed by a high-ranking TSA official to Alex Jones of Infowars who described a recent meeting where TSA management received updated memos and policies on mask requirements.
More details regarding the escalation of this policy are expected to be released in the coming weeks. By mid-October, it’s anticipated that mask mandates will extend to pilots, flight crew, passengers, and all airport goers.
Infowars also consulted a reliable source from the Border Patrol in a managerial role, who verified that parallel protocols are being arranged for Border Patrol staff. The source indicated that it’s not a question of “if,” but “when” COVID-19 numbers will rise again, prompting a reinstatement of forced masking policies. This is expected to coincide with increasing media coverage on new COVID-19 variants, as noted by the news outlet.
(Article by Jim Hᴏft republished from TheGatewayPundit)