Trump Administration bungled distribution of initial remdesivir doses; Gave doses to hospitals that were lacking ICUs, patients, or the ability to store it properly

Yasmeen Abutaleb, Josh Dawsey, Lena Sun, Laurie McGinley / The Washington Post

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Context

• Opaque government process for distributing limited supply of remdesivir is leaving some COVID-19 hotspots without the new drug and no understanding of how they can get it (Eric Boodman, Casey Ross / STAT)
• HHS outlines plan for remdesivir distribution: drug supply will be given over to states, whose health departments will distribute to hospitals based on determinations of need (Release / HHS)
• Gilead donates additional 300k remdesivir doses to federal government, enough to treat 30 – 55k more patients (Eric Boodman / STAT)
• UPMC using lottery to determine which patients receive remdesivir doses; Weighted to favor essential workers, economically distressed neighborhoods (Melanie Evans, Joseph Walker / The Wall Street Journal)