As Trump leaves us with no vaccination plan, states cancel appointments due to low supplies

Amid reports that the outgoing administration of former President Donald Trump left no national vaccination plans for new President Joe Biden, cities of New York, Mississippi and South Carolina have canceled appointments you planned vaccination due to a lack of available doses.

“There is no plan, or no plan, by the Trump administration in terms of distribution, how to actually talk to the public about these vaccines and educate [people] on why they are so important to their health, ”said Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease expert at the University of Minnesota who is a member of Biden’s coronavirus advisory board, told WBUR.

“What we are inheriting from the Trump administration is much worse than we could have imagined,” Jeff Zients, Biden’s COVID-19 coordinator, told reporters Wednesday night. “We don’t have the visibility we hope to have on the offer and the allocations.”

On Thursday, Biden unveiled his national coronavirus strategy which included his previously announced goal of delivering 100 million vaccines in his first 100 days in office – in other words, by April 30.

But as Biden signed an executive order on Thursday invoking the Defense Production Act to speed up vaccine production and another order directing states to create more vaccination centers in public places like stadiums, convention centers and pharmacies, health experts say there is both a shortage of products available. doses that could take months to settle and also a misallocation of currently available doses.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that while around 38 million doses were dispensed, according to Politico, only about half were administered, leaving a gap of around 19 million unused doses.

Speaking at the White House COVID task force briefing on Thursday, Dr Anthony Fauci, infectious disease expert and coronavirus advisory committee, said: “This is something we really need to take a close look at,” adding: “What would be most worrying is the vaccine. Hang around.”

Under the Trump administration, states were not told by the federal government how many doses to expect and when, which left them planning in a climate of uncertainty, according to Politico.

Operating under this uncertainty, cities in states across the country are canceling vaccination appointments due to lack of doses.

Baptist Health South Florida has had to cancel some of its 12,000 immunization appointments, according to NBC News, and officials in San Francisco, New York and New Jersey have also said their levels are low.

In New York state, 26,300 of those appointments were revoked, according to Bloomberg News and WGRZ.

On January 15, the Beaufort Memorial Hospital in Beaufort, South Carolina, canceled 6,000 scheduled appointments, citing a lack of available doses. Although the hospital has ordered more than 2,000 vaccines for the start of the month, they have only received 450 vaccines.

On January 14, the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) said it would not be able to vaccinate all eligible people until it received a new shipment of doses in mid -February.

The MSDH announcement came a day after the state’s Republican Governor Tate Reeves told residents to sign up for vaccinations amid an increase in new cases of COVID-19. His instructions overwhelmed the state’s immunization planning website and hotline.

“The Mississippi State Department of Health hopes to receive a large shipment of vaccines in mid-February that should help put additional injections in people’s arms,” ​​the MSDH statement said. “We understand the frustration caused by this sudden change of plans.”

Newsweek has contacted the White House for comment.