General apologizes for ‘ miscommunication’ over vaccine shipments
The Army general in charge of getting COVID- 19 vaccines across the United States apologized on Saturday for “miscommunication” with states over the number of doses to be delivered in the early stages of distribution.
“I failed. I’m adjusting. I am fixing and we will move forward from there,” Gen. Gustave Perna told reporters in a telephone briefing.
Perna’s remarks came a day after a second vaccine was added in the fight against COVID- 19, which has killed more than 312,000 people in the U. S. Governors in more than a dozen states have said the federal government has told them that next week’s shipment of the Pfizer- BioNTech vaccine will be less than originally projected.
Perna acknowledged the criticism and accepted blame.
“I want to take personal responsibility for the miscommunication,” he said. “I know that’s not done much these days. But I am responsible. … This is a Herculean effort and we are not perfect.”
The general said he made mistakes by citing numbers of doses that he believed would be ready.
“I am the one who approved forecast sheets. I’m the one who approved allocations,” Perna said. “There is no problem with the process. There is no problem with the Pfizer vaccine. There is no problem with the Moderna vaccine.”
There’s a distinction between manufactured vaccine and doses that are ready to be released. The finished product must undergo “rigorous quality control and sterility tests,” which can take up to a month, the Department of Health and Human Services said.
Perna said the government now is on track to get approximately 20 million doses to states by the first week of January, a combination of the newly approved Moderna vaccine and the Pfizer- BioNTech vaccine.
Perna said 2.9 million Pfizer- BioNTech doses have been delivered to states so far.
Health officials: 6 severe allergic reactions out of 272,000 shots
ATLANTA — U. S. health officials closely tracking possible side effects of the first authorized COVID- 19 vaccine say they have seen six cases of severe allergic reaction out of more than a quarter million shots given.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said more than 272,000 shots of the Pfizer vaccine were given nationwide as of Saturday morning. The half- dozen cases of allergic reaction were reported as of Friday night, and included one person with a history of vaccination reactions.
UK nixes Christmas gatherings
LONDON — Millions of people must cancel their Christmas get- togethers and most shops have to close in London and much of southern England, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said Saturday as he imposed a new, stricter level of coronavirus restrictions on the region to curb rapidly spreading infections.
Johnson said Saturday that the capital and large areas in southern England already placed under the highest level of the U. K. government’s three- tiered coronavirus alert system will move into a new Tier 4 that requires all non- essential shops, hairdressers and indoor leisure venues to close after the end of business hours Saturday.
Johnson also announced that a planned easing of socializing rules that would have allowed up to three households to meet in “Christmas bubbles” from Dec. 23 to Dec. 27 will be canceled for Tier 4 areas and sharply curtailed in the rest of England.
“It is with a very heavy heart that I must tell you we cannot proceed with Christmas as planned,” Johnson said.
In the rest of England, people will be allowed to meet in Christmas bubbles for just one day instead of five, as the government originally planned.