There is good news on the COVID-19 front this week, as Umatilla County expands immunization plans for area educators.

That’s one of those few bright spots in the larger COVID-19 vaccine rollout that, for the most part, proved to be loaded with inefficiency and missed opportunities.

The vaccine isn’t reaching states — or local governments — in a timely manner and most of that responsibility rests with the federal government.

From the beginning of the pandemic, the response by the federal government has been lackluster at best.

Changing COVID-19 restrictions, lack of preparedness and an inability to fulfill promises are hallmarks of the federal government’s response to the pandemic.

Locally, and at the state level, it appears officials are doing all they can to get as much of the vaccine out, but they depend on an apparent rickety distribution system.

This week, the Umatilla County Health Department is slated to receive 700 doses of vaccine and several events — at the Pendleton Convention Center and at Hermiston High School — are planned to get the vaccine out to residents that qualify.

The effort is a good one, but the fact is the local health department needs more vaccine faster.

About 16 million vaccines have been administered in the U.S., but the nation still lags behind the United Kingdom and Israel in its distribution effort.

Newly elected President Joe Biden has made some wide-sweeping proclamations about how his administering will fix all of this and we hope he proves to be correct.

For example, President Biden pledged to spearhead a program to distribute 100 million doses of the vaccine in his first 100 days as president.

We’ll see.

Vaccinations have increased since the start of the year, which is good news, but the effort still lags, putting millions in danger.

There are several key reasons the vaccination program is important. First and foremost, the vaccine does and will save lives. The more people in at-risk categories that can receive both doses of the vaccine will be better protected. The second major reason why the vaccine program is so important is that once most of us are vaccinated, most of the restrictions that have hammered states across the nation will evaporate.

That means the nation can open again and the millions of small businesses who are now at risk — because of COVID-19 restrictions — will have their future safeguarded.

A nation as great as the United States should have been able to tackle the problem with ease. That we have not been able to so far is troubling.