ARLINGTON, Va. — During one of the most ambitious immunization campaigns in our history, HDA president and CEO Chip Davis reinforced the distribution industry’s commitment to “answering the call” when assisting the federal, state and local governments as part of a nationwide vaccination push.

Chip Davis

Today, Davis joined several other leading industry and public health experts for a virtual discussion, “Challenge of Our Time: The COVID-19 Vaccine,” in partnership with The Hill.

Highlights from Davis’ remarks are included below.

• “If you look at the CDC’s COVID tracker, of the number of vaccines distributed versus those administered, in the last week we were running at about 3:1 nationally. That number is now under 2:1, so we are making progress in the right way.”

• “I think what is equally important is that we have to keep an eye on the future. There is the old saying that past performance is no guarantee of future success. As we look at 44 million doses distributed to date, and President Biden has announced this week an additional 200 million doses secured taking the number up to 600 million does for Pfizer and Moderna, and an upwards of 900 million with other vaccines with the likes of Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, that looks a lot different than 44 million.”

• “In rural and underserved areas, the role of community and independent pharmacies is going to be absolutely vital. Our members have strong, long-standing, historical partnerships with those rural and community pharmacies who [will rely] on distributors in their area of logistics expertise and administration to be able to help them ensure that they’re getting the vaccines to the people that live in those areas.”

• “Everybody shares the objective of getting America vaccinated as quickly as we possibly can, in terms of the impact it is going to have on everything from public health to getting our economy back in shape.”

• “In terms of where our members are, I can assure you that from the time I started at HDA just about a year ago, the mindset within this membership has been to answer the call.”

• “In fact, if the administration says that they are going to raise the aspirational limits, I can assure you our first outreach back to them is going to be, ‘What more do you need of this?’ because distributors stand ready to answer.”

• “One of the things we have learned through this [the nearly first year of COVID-19] was making sure that there was the communication loop between the public and private sector, and then within the public sector, between the federal government and state governments.”

• “I think we have seen that feedback loop increase significantly in the last week with the COVID-19 response team at the White House. As a result of that, I hope that the states who have been saying [that] they are not getting the level of not only communication, but resources in support, I think that is something that will ultimately be addressed. Distributors are certainly making continuous outreach to our partners at the state level to assist with whatever logistical expertise we can provide.”

To learn more about HDA and the distribution industry’s response to COVID-19, visit HDA.org and HealthDelivered.org.