Unwanted doses pile up
U.S. spending $250M to push for vaccinations
MADISON, Wis. — States are asking the federal government to withhold large amounts of covid-19 vaccine as demand plummets for the shots, contributing to a growing U.S. stockpile of doses.
From South Carolina to Washington, states are requesting the Biden administration send them only a fraction of what’s been allocated to them. The turned-down vaccines amounted to hundreds of thousands of doses last week alone, providing a stark illustration of the problem of vaccine hesitancy in the U.S.
More than 150 million Americans — about 57% of the adult population — have received at least one dose of vaccine, but government leaders from the Biden administration down to the city and county levels are doing everything they can to persuade the rest of the country to get inoculated.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy said Friday that the federal government has dedicated $250 million for
community organizations to promote vaccinations, make appointments and provide transportation.
He cited examples such as holding conversations with small groups of people in minority-group communities in St. Louis and asking Rhode Island churches to contact community members and offer them rides to vaccination sites. He also noted that a global Hindu American organization has turned temples into vaccination centers, making it easier for older members to get shots in a familiar setting. Indianapolis Motor Speedway has added a vaccination site in which people can get their shots in a Formula 1 garage near the race tunnels.
The Biden administration announced last week that if states don’t order all the vaccine they’ve been allotted, the administration will shift the surplus to meet demand in other states.
In another sign of the burgeoning national surplus, Biden announced last week that his administration would provide the nation’s entire stock of AstraZeneca doses to the world once it clears safety reviews.
The huge supply and dwindling demand has highlighted the vast inequalities during the pandemic, with countries like India buckling under a disastrous surge of the virus and other nations having no doses at all. At the same time, wealthy countries like the U.S. are awash in vaccine, and seeing cases and deaths plunge as a result.
The federal government allocates vaccines to each state based on population, and then it’s up to the states to decide how many doses they want to order each week. Early on, states routinely asked for the full allocation — and were clamoring for more — but now they are scaling back requests.
Wisconsin, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, Connecticut and North Carolina are among the many states seeking smaller allocations.
Not everyone is dialing back, though.
Maryland and Colorado are still ordering their full amount. So is New York City. The average number of daily shots in the nation’s largest city has dropped about 40% since peaking at more than 95,000 in mid-April, but city officials want a steady supply of doses to create more shots at doctors offices, neighborhood pharmacies and other small providers, hoping to appeal to people who have skipped mass vaccination sites.
“We’ve got the demand to keep using our supply effectively,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said.
Health experts have generally said about 70% of the nation’s population would need to be vaccinated to reach herd immunity. The Biden administration wants to get 70% of American adults vaccinated by July 4, but has acknowledged the downward trend in vaccinations and the challenge to win over people who doubt the vaccine’s effectiveness or simply don’t want to get shots.
The president announced Tuesday that federal officials will expand smaller and mobile vaccination clinics for hard-to-reach communities and push education campaigns. He also has touted incentive programs, such as discounts for shoppers who get vaccinated at grocery stores.
North Carolina health officials are considering paying younger people to get shots. West Virginia has announced people between 16 and 35 will be eligible for a $100 savings bond if they get a vaccination or have gotten it. Detroit officials started a program Monday to pay people $50 for every city resident they sign up for a first dose and take in for an appointment.
Dr. Joshua Sharfstein, vice dean for public health practice and community engagement at Johns Hopkins University, said he wasn’t “despairing” over the slowing of demand.
“Herd immunity is not necessarily a moment when the music plays and the sun shines,” he said. “It is about how easy it is for the virus to pass around in a community, and I think there is a lot more progress to be made.
“People who think, ‘ Well, we are done with the large stadiums, so that is it, we are not going to vaccinate any more people,’ are wrong. You can vaccinate a lot of people if you make it convenient for them, if you get it to their doctor’s offices, if you answer their questions. But it is going to take a different type of effort to do it,” Sharfstein said.
CAMPUS CRACKDOWNS
About a year into mask mandates, nasal swabs and remote classes, the atmosphere turned tense at the University of Vermont as the school cracked down on rules for social distancing and face coverings amid as student covid-19 cases spiked.
Students were handed hundreds of citations for violations like standing in another student’s doorway or walking maskless to a hallway restroom, igniting a student-led petition that blasted “strict and inhumane living conditions.”
“You start to feel suffocated, like I’m afraid to leave my room,” freshman Patrick Welsh said in an interview on campus.
Even as restrictions relax across much of the United States, colleges and universities have taken new steps to police campus life as the virus spreads through students who are among the last adults to get access to vaccines. Administrators say they’ve needed to act urgently to avoid risking an early end to the semester or sending infected students home and spreading the virus.
In recent weeks, the University of Michigan punished hundreds of students for missing mandatory virus testing by deactivating their access cards to nonresidential buildings, and Cornell University announced that students would lose access to campus Wi-Fi, course materials and facilities for missing virus tests. The University of Chicago locked down residence halls for seven days and shifted classes online after finding more than 50 cases in a matter of days.
The measures were implemented as administrators assess whether in-person commencement ceremonies are feasible, how to get students vaccinated and whether to make the shots a requirement. The onset of warm weather and eased restrictions outside campus gates pose additional challenges.
After recording 200 cases in the first two weeks of April, North Carolina A&T State University eliminated in-person dining and banned visitors from campus housing. While the state’s governor has lifted an outdoor mask mandate and doubled mass gathering limits to allow 100 people indoors and 200 people outdoors, the university has worked with law enforcement officials to try to shut down off-campus events billed as “Aggie-Fest” celebrations that target students, said Todd Simmons, associate vice chancellor for university relations.
“What we’re trying to prevail on students is two things. First, let’s not get commencement canceled with some sort of last-minute major surge in covid infections, and secondly do not take a chance on taking a covid infection home,” Simmons said.
The historically Black university also has been pushing students to get vaccinated on campus, he said, bringing in speakers to address vaccine hesitancy.
At the University of Vermont, just under 100 students tested positive for the virus during the fall semester. But the numbers surged in the spring, with more than 680 students infected so far. Gary Derr, vice president for operations and public safety, said the fall semester got off to a smoother start because it was warm enough for students to socialize outside.
“We came back in the spring and we were stuck indoors,” he said. Like many campuses, there was no spring break to look forward to; the university didn’t want students to return with the virus.
Students at the Vermont school agree to a pledge that they will abide by school rules for preventing the spread of the coronavirus, and violations can lead to fines, probation or suspension for repeated offenses. This spring, six students have been suspended and 23, some of whom had faced full suspension, are banished from campus, allowed only to join classes remotely, after the school agreed to review the cases.
As tulips and daffodils bloom on campus, signs tell students to keep up the practices like social-distancing and mask-wearing. At the covid-19 testing center, where students are tested twice a week, banners say, “It’s up to us” and “Thanks for doing your part.”
The warmer weather has made it easier to see friends and classmates on campus, students said, but fears of being penalized have taken a toll.
“If I go anywhere on campus and I mess up, like I’m sitting too close to someone or my mask is below my nose, I could get fined or I could get suspended. It makes you afraid, and it’s terrible for mental health,” said Welsh. “And I think the [college] administration is not really recognizing that; they’re just trying to look good.”
When hundreds of young people crowded onto a Burlington, Vt., beach the second weekend in April, student Gary Sinclair saw it as a kind of revolt against the crackdown.
“We were working really hard to make sure the school stays open so that those guys can make money,” Sinclair said, “but I think North Beach was a huge, almost a statement to the [college] administration that, ‘You know what? If you’re going to try to intimidate us with fear and fines, kicking us out, stuff like that, then we’re all going to go to the beach and you’re not going to kick all of us out.’”