Governors Complain Reduced Covid-19 Vaccine Shipments, Federal Government Says Not True

Just days after the historic launch of the Covid-19 vaccine, there have already been issues and confusion over when and how many doses will be distributed in the weeks to come.

Several governors have reported that half of the number of Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines expected will be delivered in the next few weeks and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has suggested Pfizer has manufacturing issues.

The federal Department of Health and Human Services, however, released a statement Thursday denying that the number of doses is reduced.

“Reports that jurisdictions’ allowances are being reduced are incorrect,” an HHS spokesperson said in a statement. “As was done with the initial shipments of Pfizer vaccine, jurisdictions will receive the vaccine at different sites over several days.”

This, said the spokesperson, “lightens the burden on the courts and spreads the workload over several days”.

Meanwhile, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla insisted via twitter Thursday, that the company “has no production problems with our Covid-19 vaccine and that no shipments containing the vaccine are suspended or delayed”.

“This week, we successfully shipped the 2.9 million doses that the US government asked us to ship to locations it specified,” said an official statement from Pfizer. “We have millions of additional doses in our warehouse, but at this time we have not received any shipping instructions for additional doses.”

The confusion appears to have started on Wednesday during a briefing led by General Gustave Perna, COO of Operation Warp Speed, when it was announced that some 2 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine would be allocated next week. . That’s 900,000 fewer doses than this week.

Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Pfizer faces some production challenges.

“As you know, they ended up running out of half of what they thought they could produce and what they advertised they would be able to produce” in 2020, he said.

This was after DeSantis said Tuesday that Florida would receive 450,000 fewer doses in the next few weeks because Pfizer was having production issues.

“We were to receive 205,000 Pfizer (doses) next week and 247,000 next week,” he said at a press conference. “These next two shipments of Pfizer (vaccine) are currently on hold. We don’t know if we will get it or not. And we’re just going to have to wait.

Later, Illinois Governor JB Pritzker said his state was receiving just under half of the 8.8 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine that were supposed to be given in the next two weeks.

“According to General Perna’s leadership of Operation War Speed, that estimate has been drastically reduced to 4.3 million doses shipped nationwide next week,” Pritzker said Wednesday. “The following week, initially projected for an additional 8.8 million, is also expected to be 4.3 million.

On the same day, a spokeswoman for the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services announced that her vaccine allowance would drop 29% next week, from 84,000 doses to 60,000.

“This is decided federally and subject to change,” said Lynn Sutfin in an email to Crain’s Detroit Business.

Pfizer’s vaccine manufacturing plant and distribution center is located on a campus just outside of Kalamazoo, Michigan.

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee was the most recent to say his state’s vaccine allocation will be cut – without any explanation – by 40% next week “and all states will experience similar cuts.”

“It’s disturbing and frustrating”, Inslee tweeted. “We need precise and predictable numbers to plan and ensure success on the ground.”

In addition to confusion over dose distribution, some 39,000 injections of Pfizer destined for Alabama and California were returned to the manufacturer because they had been stored in conditions even colder than the minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit recommended by Pfizer, Perna said Wednesday.

“We weren’t taking any risks,” he said.

Pfizer’s vaccine was the first to obtain emergency clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration. And unlike other vaccine developers, Pfizer did not take federal funds for research or development of Operation Warp Speed.