State Dept. received less COVID vaccine than expected, changing plans on who gets it first
The State Department received far fewer doses of Pfizer’s coronavirus vaccine than initially expected, forcing its medical unit to alter plans on how to allocate the first doses to the most vulnerable personnel, two sources familiar with the matter told McClatchy on Friday.
On a call Thursday with congressional staff to discuss the State Department’s coronavirus response, members of the medical unit said the department had received only 5% of what was expected, one of the sources said. A second source confirmed the department has had to readjust its distribution plans due to the significantly smaller delivery.
The medical unit now plans to prioritize the State Department medical staff who regularly come into contact with ill people, as well as members of diplomatic security who protect foreign diplomats.
They will also prioritize cleaning and cafeteria workers, one member of the medical unit said on the call. In recent weeks, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo invited over 900 people to indoor holiday parties during a surge of cases in the COVID-19 pandemic.
A State Department spokesperson said the department “has received its first small allotment of vaccine and expects to receive its remaining allotment incrementally.”
“Due to operational sensitivity, the Department is not publicly sharing specific details of the timing or logistics of the deployment of the COVID-19 vaccine for State’s workforce at this time,” the spokesperson said.
State Department Under Secretary for Management Brian Bulatao on Tuesday told staff in an internal memo first obtained by CNN and confirmed to McClatchy that they would be receiving a “very limited number” of vaccine doses, and that personnel in Kabul, Baghdad and Mogadishu would be among the first to get the vaccine, due to the “challenges of providing
medical support services in these locations.”
States across the country have also complained in recent days that they have been told by the federal government they will receive fewer doses of the vaccine than they had expected next week.
A federal official told McClatchy on Thursday that a Pentagon information system called Tiberius was the source of the confusion. The platform had kept old training data in place throughout last week, causing governors to believe they would receive more doses than they actually will.
Five federal agencies — the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, Indian Health Service, Bureau of Prisons and the State Department — all use Tiberius as a vaccine tracking system, and order vaccine doses through VTrckS, a separate order management system set up by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.