States are running low on COVID-19 vaccine
Shortages fuel rise in 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.
The full explanation for the apparent mismatch between supply and demand was unclear, but last week the U.S. Health and Human Services Department suggested that states had unrealistic expectations for how much vaccine was on the way.
First-grade teacher Karen Stachowiak spent almost five hours on the New York state hotline and website to land an appointment set for Wednesday, only to have it 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.’ ”
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 failings 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.
Some states have suggested they may run out of vaccine by Thursday and are unclear when new doses will arrive.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday that the city had to cancel 23,000 appointments for people awaiting their first dose this week because of inadequate supply.
The mayor, who has been sounding the alarm about vaccine shortages for days, said the situation was compounded by a delay in this week’s delivery of Moderna vaccine.
“So we already were feeling the stress of a shortage of the vaccine,” he said. “Now the situation has been made even worse. We need to think differently in this moment.”
In Florida, local media reported a similar problem in the Miami area, where the Baptist Health care system canceled appointments that had been scheduled for first doses.
“I could have blown the top of my head off with steam,” 76-year-old Charlotte Reeve told The Miami Herald.
San Francisco’s health department said it is likely to run out of vaccine on Thursday, in part because the state pulled back on administering a batch of Moderna shots after several health workers suffered what may have been a bad reaction.