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In this file photo from Dec. 29, 2020, Penny Cracas, of the Chester County, Pa., Health Department, fills a syringe with Moderna COVID-19 vaccine before administering it to emergency medical workers and the Chester County health workers. Government Service Center in West Chester, Pennsylvania.
Matt Slocum / AP
Oregon Governor Kate Brown said on Friday morning that the state’s efforts to quickly speed up COVID-19 vaccinations had been derailed by what she called a “mass deception” on the part of of the Trump administration.
“Last night I received disturbing news, which was confirmed to me directly by General Perna of Operation Warp Speed: States will not receive an increase in vaccine shipments from the national stockpile next week, as it there is no federal reserve of doses ” Brown said on Twitter.
Last night I received disturbing news, which was confirmed directly to me by General Perna of Operation Warp Speed: States will not receive an increase in vaccine shipments from the national stockpile next week, as it there is no federal reserve of doses.
– Governor Kate Brown (@OregonGovBrown) January 15, 2021
“I demand answers from the Trump administration. I am shocked and dismayed that they set an expectation they could not live up to, with consequences so serious, ”she continued. “This is a nationwide deception. The Oregon seniors, the teachers, all of us, depended on the promise that Oregon’s share of the federal vaccine reserve would be given to us.
The governor’s tweets on Friday morning suggest a major setback, less than a day after the Oregon Health Authority said it hit its goal of administering 12,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine per day and was preparing to extend this effort further.
U.S. Army General Gustave Perna, Chief Operating Officer of Operation Warp Speed, speaks at a press conference on Operation Warp Speed and the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, the Tuesday, January 12, 2021, in Washington. According to Oregon Governor Kate Brown, Perna told her Thursday evening that states would not receive an increase in vaccine shipments from the national stockpile next week as planned.
Patrick Semansky / AP
Earlier this week, Brown announced that Oregon would expand its COVID-19 vaccination efforts to include people aged 65 and older, as well as teachers.
And in the Portland area, four major health systems have pledged to pool staff and vaccine doses to begin a major inoculation effort at the Oregon Convention Center, starting at the end of the month. .
Those plans were based in part on the expectation that Oregon would receive additional doses from the federal government starting January 23.
According to an Oregonlive / The Oregonian report Thursday, the state still has 200,000 unused doses on hand, but officials have struggled to keep track of the vaccine’s distribution.
According to a report in the Washington Post on Friday morning, the Trump administration stopped stockpiling the vaccine late last year and began shipping doses straight from the assembly line. Administration officials said they were confident pharmaceutical manufacturers could meet demand now that they had reached a steady rate of production, The Washington Post reported.
President-elect Joe Biden has said he plans to free up vaccine stocks to speed up inoculation efforts after his inauguration.
As of Friday morning, it was not immediately clear how Brown and Biden’s vaccine strategies will be affected by the lack of a Federal Reserve of Doses.
This story is developing. Watch for updates.
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