US vaccine shortage leads to canceled appointments
NEW YORK — The push to inoculate Americans against the coronavirus is hitting a roadblock: A number of states are reporting they are running out of vaccine, and tens of thousands of people who managed to get appointments for a first dose are seeing them canceled.
Karen Stachowiak, a firstgrade teacher in the Buffalo area, spent almost five hours on the New York state hot line and website to land an appointment for Wednesday, only to be told it was canceled. The Erie County Health Department said it scratched vaccinations for over 8,000 people in the past few days because of inadequate supply.
“It’s stressful because I was so close. And my other friends that are teachers, they were able to book appointments for last Saturday,” Stachowiak said. “So many people are getting theirs in and then it’s like, ‘Nope, I’ve got to wait.’ ”
The reason for the apparent mismatch between supply and demand in the U.S. was unclear, but last week the Health and Human Services Department suggested that states had unrealistic expectations for how much vaccine was on the way. In any case, new shipments go out every week, and both the government and the drugmakers have said there are large quantities in the pipeline.
The shortages are coming as states dramatically ramp up their vaccination drives, at the direction of the government, to reach people 65 and older, along with other groups deemed essential or at high risk, such as teachers and police officers. More than 400,000 deaths in the U.S. have been blamed on the virus.
President Joe Biden, inaugurated Wednesday, immediately came under pressure to fix things. He has made it clear that the federal government under his administration will take a stronger hand to speed up the vaccination drive, and he vowed to administer 100 million shots in his first 100 days.
Less than half of the 36 million doses distributed to the states by the federal government have been administered so far, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Public health officials have said the gap could reflect record-keeping delays as well as disarray and other shortcomings at various levels of government in actually getting shots into arms.
In a statement, HHS said that jurisdictions actually received about a 5% increase in vaccine allocations this week from what they got in the past couple of weeks. That is because the government discontinued the practice of holding large amounts of vaccine in reserve as a hedge against production delays that could prevent people from getting their second shot on time.
Countries across Europe are also having problems getting enough doses to provide protection against a virus that is now appearing in new, more contagious variants around the globe.
Pfizer said last week it would temporarily reduce deliveries of its vaccine to Europe and Canada while it upgrades capacity at its plant in Belgium, which supplies all shots delivered outside the United States. Pfizer’s primary site for manufacturing vaccine for the U.S. is in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
In the U.S., some states have suggested they may run out of vaccine by Thursday and are unclear when new doses will arrive.
In a statement, Moderna said that it is on track to deliver 100 million doses by the end of the first quarter of the year and 200 million by the end of the second quarter.
Pfizer, the maker of the other vaccine used in the U.S., said it duly filled the government’s orders over the past two weeks. It said it is working around the clock to produce millions more doses each day and foresees no problems in meeting its commitment to deliver 200 million by the end of July.
West Virginia, which has run one of the speediest vaccination drives in the country, said it didn’t receive an expected increase in doses this week. With 99.6% of first doses on hand already administered, officials are clamoring for the government to send more.