States face a shortage of COVID vaccines as eligibility increases

U.S. states are finally speeding up the pace of their COVID-19 vaccination programs, so much so that many have already vaccinated so many of their health workers and older residents that they are ready to expand.

At least 28 states and Washington, DC, have begun vaccinating teachers, and at least 19 – including California, New York, and Illinois – have started giving injections to people with underlying health conditions that put them at risk.

But that encouraging progress is being held back now that states run out of doses to give. Some even postpone the extension of eligibility due to shortages.

So far, nearly 53.8 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine have been given in the US and 11.8 percent of the population has had one or more doses.

Barely 1.7 million doses are given per day, but states that excel at vaccination, such as West Virginia, are paralyzed by a lack of doses.

West Virginia, with some of the worst death rates from despair, obesity, and heart disease in the US, has become the dark horse of the vaccinations.

According to Bloomberg data, the state has given at least one dose of vaccine to nearly 14 percent of the population – well above the national average.

But the swift campaign is being slowed, health officials there say.

“ With vaccine shortages across the country, the state is currently aiming to vaccinate Western Virginians 65 and older, along with health professionals and teachers 50 and older, ” said Allison Adler, director of communications for the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. DailyMail.com told an email.

“Right now, West Virginia needs more vaccines and it keeps asking for more so we can get them armed as soon as possible.”

According to the health department’s own vaccine tracker, West Virginia has given the first doses to 254,646 people as of Monday.

It delivered an incredible 106.2 percent of its first doses – a feat achieved by extracting additional doses from vials of the Pfizers vaccine, expanding its supply.

The state also gave 97.3 percent of the 144,4,000 second doses it was assigned.

On Jan. 26, President Biden promised states would see a 16 percent increase in the number of vaccine doses they would receive the following week, starting Monday, Feb. 1.

He also said states would be notified three weeks in advance of how many doses they will be receiving.

But West Virginia hasn’t seen shipments increase that much.

As of December 21, 2020, it has received 11,700 first doses and 11,700 second doses of Pfizers vaccine every week.

This week, the Moderna dose allocation has increased to 18,500 from each first and second dose – but that’s only an eight percent increase from the previous allocation of 17,100 doses per week.

Despite requests for more shipments and the remarkably smooth rollout of vaccines in West Virginia, that state has to ration doses rather than give them to more people.

And it is not the only state facing this problem.

At least four other states – North Dakota, New Mexico, Utah, and Montana – used more than 90 percent of the doses they received by the federal government.

Even states that have used a smaller fraction of the assigned doses are being held up.

California has only delivered 74.2 percent of the nearly six million vaccine doses sent to it by the federal government.

And the state will begin vaccinating residents under the age of 65 who have a disability or serious underlying health conditions on March 15.

But as of Monday, even people who were already eligible struggled to take photos.

Two massive vaccination centers in San Francisco remained closed on Monday due to a shortage of vaccines.

The locations in the Moscone Center and City College of San Francisco won’t reopen until they get their next batch of vaccines from the federal government.

Illinois and New York also announced last week that they will soon begin to vaccinate residents with ‘comorbidities’ that put them at high risk for COVID-19, including heart disease, diabetes, obesity or pregnancy.

New York eligible for vaccination as of Monday for anyone over 16 in these categories, despite dwindling supplies, low vaccination coverage in rural areas, and even in some areas of New York City, such as the Bronx, and there are about 9,500 nursing home residents left to vaccinate.

Governor Andrew Cuomo pointed out Monday that 10 million people are now eligible for vaccination in New York – but only 300,000 doses assigned to the state each week.

He blamed the Trump administration.

“The Trump administration had said they were more eligible and that they would increase the supply of vaccines, so the states increased eligibility, but the Trump administration increased the vaccine supply,” Cuomo said at Monday’s press conference.

Biden comes in, and what actually happens is “the cabinets are empty,” he added, referring to a Buffalo News editorial.

Cuomo attributed the Biden administration for immediately securing more doses from manufacturers.

“But nationwide, more people are eligible than there are doses available,” he said.

“The federal government has increased eligibility, but never increased the supply.”

As a result, New York now has “10 million people chasing 300,000 doses.”

Cuomo did not notice that the supply of Moderna doses in New York has increased over the past three weeks, and it is planned that this week will receive 111,300 doses, compared to 103,000 the previous week and 94,200 the week before.

But at the current rate the state is receiving doses, it will take 33 weeks for everyone currently eligible in New York to get vaccinated.

There will still be 9.46 million New York residents who need vaccines (including children under 16, for whom the FDA has not yet approved shots).

Teachers in 28 states are now also eligible for vaccination (although some states have restrictions on that designation, such as West Virginia, which says only educators over 50 get the chance).

Those states are:

The US government now has contracts for 600 million combined doses of Moderna and Pfizer vaccines – enough for nearly the entire US population to receive both doses.

And vaccine manufacturers are working hard to make more doses, but bottlenecks continue to crop up at the manufacturer and federal distribution levels.