Thread by @DrLeanaWen

At the current rate of #covid19 vaccinations, it will take the U.S. 10 years to inoculate 80% of Americans.

Instead of obfuscating & deflecting responsibility, the federal government needs to take 3 urgent steps.

My @washingtonpost op-ed (1/6): washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/…

I know ramping up a complex operation is hard. It's possible 2 million is an undercount.

What concerns me most is that officials are backtracking on their promises. It's giving me flashbacks to the testing debacle (remember "everyone who wants a test can get one")? (2/6)

So what can be done? 3 things.

1) Set up a real-time public dashboard to hold the right officials responsible and to target additional resources to where are most needed. (3/6)

2) Publicize the plan for how vaccinations will be scaled up from 1 million a week to 3.5 million a day (which is what we need to get to 80% within 6 months).

We need to see a national strategy that sets ambitious but realistic goals. (4/6)

3) Acknowledge the challenges and end the defensiveness.

The public will understand if initial goals need to be revised, but there must be willingness to learn from missteps and immediately course-correct. (5/6)

I remain optimistic that vaccines will one day end this horrific #covid19 pandemic that has taken far too many lives. To get there, we must approach the next several months with urgency, transparency and humility. (6/6)