An increasing number of COVID-19 vaccination sites in the US are canceling thousands of appointments due to vaccine shortages in a rollout so confused that even the new CDC director admitted she doesn’t know exactly how many shots are in the pipeline.
States waited for their final weekly vaccination assignment from the federal government on Tuesday, amid complaints from governors and top health officials about inadequate supplies and the need for earlier and more reliable estimates of how much is underway so they can plan accordingly.
President Joe Biden suggested Monday that he hopes that the country can soon reach 1.5 million shots a day. His government has also pledged more openness, saying it will hold newsletters three times a week about the outbreak that killed more than 420,000 Americans.
Amid mounting frustration, the Biden White House scheduled its first virus-related appeal with the country’s governors on Tuesday. The president planned to provide an update on efforts to bolster the vaccine supply and get more shots in the arms of Americans faster, press secretary Jen Psaki said.
The set-up inherited from the Trump administration has been characterized by miscommunication and unexplained bottlenecks, with shortages reported in places even if vaccine doses remain on the shelf.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, Biden’s newly appointed director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was herself confused over the weekend when she tried to describe current supplies.
“I can’t tell you how much vaccine we have,” she told Fox News Sunday, describing the problem as a challenge from the outgoing Trump administration. “And if I can’t tell you, then I can’t tell the governors, nor the state health officials. If they don’t know how much vaccine they’ll be getting, not just this week, but next week and the week after, they can’t plan. “
Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state is “at the mercy of what the federal government sends us” and cannot meet growing resident demand.
Officials in West Virginia, which has had one of the best delivery rates, said they have fewer than 11,000 first doses on hand even after this week’s shipment.
“I’m shouting my head off” for more, said Republican Governor Jim Justice.
Georgia Governor Brian Kemp said he does not expect state allotment to increase in the coming weeks, which will limit progress in vaccinating those now eligible, including those over 65 and first responders. Rhode Island officials said late last week that they cannot extend eligibility to over-65s with the current allocations, despite complaints from senior lawyers.
The weekly allocation cycle for the first doses begins on Monday evening, when federal officials review vaccine availability data from manufacturers to determine how much each state can have. Allocations are based on the population of persons 18 years of age and older in each jurisdiction.
States will be notified of their allocations on Tuesday through a computer network called Tiberius and other channels, after which they can specify where they want to send the doses. Deliveries begin the following Monday.
A similar but separate process for ordering second doses, to be given three to four weeks after the first, starts every week on Sunday evening.
As of Tuesday morning, the CDC reported that just over half of the 41 million doses distributed to states have been put into people’s arms. That is far less than the hundreds of millions of doses that experts say will need to be administered to achieve herd immunity and overcome the outbreak.
According to the University of Oxford, the US ranks fifth in the world in terms of the number of doses administered in relation to the population of the country, behind number 1 Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Great Britain and Bahrain.
The reason why more of the available shots have not been distributed in the US is not entirely clear. But many vaccination sites apparently keep large amounts of vaccine in reserve to ensure that people who have already received their first injection get the required second one on time.
Also, some government officials have complained about a delay between when they report their vaccination figures to the government and when the figures are posted on the CDC website.
In the New Orleans area, Ochsner Health said Monday that an inadequate supply last week forced the cancellation of 21,400 first-dose appointments, but that it does not affect second-dose appointments.
Inova Health System, the largest health care provider in suburban Virginia, Washington, DC, said it is canceling all first-dose appointments at its mass vaccination clinics starting Thursday due to insufficient supplies. Appointments with the second dose are kept.
In North Carolina, Cone Health of Greensboro announced it is canceling first-dose appointments for 10,000 people and moving it to a waiting list due to delivery issues.
Jesse Williams, 81, of Reidsville, North Carolina, said his appointment with Cone Health on Thursday was scratched, and he’s waiting for a message when it might reschedule. The former volunteer firefighter had hoped the vaccine would allow him to return to church, play golf and see friends.
“It’s just a frustration that we expected to get our shots and be a bit more resilient to COVID-19,” he said.
The roll-out of vaccines in the European Union of 27 countries has also hit roadblocks and is also criticized as being too slow. Pfizer is delaying deliveries as it upgrades its factory in Belgium to increase capacity. And AstraZeneca announced that the first delivery will be smaller than expected.
The EU, with 450 million citizens, demands that pharmaceutical companies meet their obligations on time.
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Associated Press writers in the US contributed to this report.
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Find AP’s full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic