Michael Maron, CEO of Holy Name Medical Center, told CNBC on Tuesday that his New Jersey hospital’s vaccination efforts against Covid are hampered by a consistent problem: inconsistent availability.
“The biggest challenge we face now is the delivery of the vaccine. We just can’t get it, and we can’t get it on a reliable path. It’s very difficult,” Maron said of “Power Lunch.”
“We have Pfizer one week, Moderna the next,” he added, referring to the makers of the two vaccines who have received emergency use clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration. “We never know exactly how much of that will be forthcoming, whether it’s a thousand doses … or two thousand or more.”
So far, Maron said the Holy Name Medical Center – located in Teaneck, near New York City – has administered about 5,000 doses of vaccine. However, Maron said the hospital has the capacity to administer 3,000 doses per day, in part as a result of a partnership it entered into with Teaneck to create a vaccination site in a community center.
On Monday, 570 residents were given the vaccine on the site, according to a report on Teaneck’s official website. But due to the “lack of available vaccine,” Township Manager Dean Kazinci wrote, the site closed on Tuesday – illustrating the supply problems Maron talked about.
“The Holy Name Medical Center is awaiting the delivery of additional trays of the vaccine that should arrive mid-week. We will release additional information when it becomes available,” Kazinci wrote.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the Holy Name website also informs visitors that the hospital “currently” does not schedule Covid vaccination appointments due to limited availability.
The introduction of Covid vaccines in the US has been slower than officials had hoped. According to the latest available data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 12.3 million doses have been administered as of Friday. 31.2 million doses have been distributed.
President-elect Joe Biden, who will be sworn in on Wednesday, has vowed to speed up the vaccine’s introduction with a pledge to deliver 100 million doses in 100 days. On Sunday, Biden’s choice to lead the CDC, Dr. Rochelle Walensky, she believed the US would have enough vaccines to achieve the goal.
“It’s going to be quite a lift, but we’ve got enough to do that,” Walensky said on CBS ‘Face the Nation.
Covid hospital admissions
While vaccinations against Covid are crucial to mitigate the impact of the disease, Maron warned that the US coronavirus outbreak is a current threat. On Tuesday, the country’s death toll by Covid exceeded 400,000, just over a month after it recorded 300,000 deaths, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.
Maron said Covid hospital admissions at Holy Name Medical Center are not at the levels they had previously during the pandemic, as they were in March and April. The hospital now also has better treatments for patients, he said. Nevertheless, he said a worrying aspect is the age of patients hospitalized with the disease.
“It’s not who you’d think,” Maron said. “It is mostly people between the ages of 45 and 65, so these are not the frail older people everyone was talking about. They are the ones on a ventilator, so we are somewhat concerned.”
He said it is not clear what is causing the hospitalizations among younger US residents. “For us here in the industry, it reminds us that this is still a very, very serious and deadly virus. We shouldn’t take it lightly.”