Amid statewide shortage, Baptist Health cancels scheduled first-dose COVID vaccines
Baptist Health announced Tuesday that due to restraints on the COVID-19 vaccine supply, all first-dose vaccinations booked for Jan. 20 and later are canceled. No new appointments will be taken. Second-dose appointments are not affected, as required by the vaccine’s emergency use authorization.
“I could have blown the top of my head off with steam,” said Charlotte Reeve, 76, of Davie, who had her appointment canceled. “I’m also a fairly recent widow. To me, having to be locked up in my house alone is just devastating to me.”
The cancellations come as top state health officials acknowledged that Florida is in a “supply-limited situation.” According to the News Service of Florida, Surgeon General Scott Rivkees told hospital officials Tuesday that he does not know when additional first doses of the Pfizer BioNtech or Moderna vaccines will be sent to the state or how many doses would be in a future shipment. “At the present time, we are in pretty much a supply-limited situation,” Rivkees said on the conference call. “So, as more vaccine becomes available, we will be able to determine when we can send more vaccines out to hospitals for community vaccination.”
In a statement to the Miami Herald, a Baptist spokeswoman said because there is no promise of a stable supply, Baptist is encouraging patients to make new appointments elsewhere.
While the Trump administration
announced last week that it would change the federal distribution formula to allocate vaccines to states based on the numbers of residents age 65 and older, the current allocations are based on the number of residents 18 and older. Florida has the second-highest number of seniors in the nation, so a change in formula would mean a likely windfall of vaccine. But for now, the shortage remains a problem.
As of Friday, the federal government had distributed 31,161,075 vaccine doses nationwide and 2,069,175 in Florida, according to the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention. The state Department of Health reported Monday that Florida had provided 1,066,107 COVID-19 vaccinations.
Thousands of seniors and people with underlying medical conditions seeking vaccines received an email with the news: “Unfortunately, your appointment to receive the first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine at Baptist Health has been canceled due to uncertainty of vaccine supply.”
“We understand that this news is disconcerting, and we share your concern,” the email to patients said. “We have worked tirelessly to begin vaccinating our community, but are unfortunately limited by vaccine ability.”
The email, which was provided to the Miami Herald by a reader whose appointment was canceled, included links to various county sites in Broward, Miami-Dade, Monroe and Palm Beach counties for people to make alternative plans.
Baptist Health’s vaccine portal first went live Jan. 8, when it booked about 13,000 appointments, according to Baptist spokeswoman Georgi Pipkin. To date, more than 25,000 people have been vaccinated at Baptist Health.
Baptist did not respond to questions about how many appointments were canceled.
In an email, Pipkin said Baptist will re-evaluate its vaccination schedules based on supply and will reach out to those affected individually.
The city of Doral and Baptist Health had crafted plans late last week to open a new vaccine site at Legacy Park Wednesday, with 200 to 300 appointments per day. Those plans are now on hold.