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An aggressive promise to partially inoculate all Oregonians aged 16 and over with COVID-19 before summer fell in danger Wednesday amid revelations that a manufacturer has ruined up to 15 million doses of Johnson’s vaccine & Johnson.
Governor Kate Brown and state health officials set high expectations two weeks ago when they said they expected “enough doses for every Oregonian who wants a vaccine to have the possibility of taking at least a first dose ”by the first week of June.
This timeline was based on the fact that Oregon was receiving an increasing supply of the one shot vaccine from Johnson & Johnson. But with millions of those doses now erased from the national supply, state officials said on Wednesday the targets may have to be moved.
“It’s hard for me to say ‘no’,” it won’t affect the schedule, said David Baden, who oversees vaccine forecasting for the Oregon Health Authority.
“We will see now,” he added. “It’s frustrating.”
Recognition of Oregon’s bad news was juxtaposed on Wednesday with Washington’s decision to make all of its residents 16 and over eligible for a vaccine on April 15, about two weeks before Oregon’s May 1 date.
Eligibility, of course, doesn’t guarantee access to a shot – and that’s why Oregon’s initial claim that anyone could get a shot by the first week of June was so important. .
State officials have made it clear that meeting the schedule will be conditional on increasing daily inoculations using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. But the schedule seemed optimistic, if not impractical, requiring first doses for nearly 3.5 million Oregonians when fewer than 1.2 million received them on Wednesday.
The schedule assumed 33,000 first dose inoculations per day using either Moderna or Pfizer-BioNTech two-dose vaccines or Johnson & Johnson’s single-injection product. But Oregon has exceeded 33,000 daily doses given just seven times to date – and that includes both the first and second doses.
Baden, the financial director of the health authority, maintained the veracity of this initial schedule on Wednesday. He said state officials expected to see 200,000 to 250,000 first doses administered per week, the equivalent of about 28,500 to 35,700 per day.
But with the uncertainty over Johnson & Johnson, he said, first-dose vaccinations could potentially be half of that.
Oregon still expects to receive a large amount of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine next week, said Baden, which could total around 100,000 doses between the state’s allocation and the vaccine sent directly to pharmacies.
But beyond next week, it’s questionable, he said.
This is because workers at a manufacturing plant in Baltimore made the Johnson & Johnson vaccine with incorrect ingredients, The New York Times reported on Wednesday.
While the error did not affect existing doses already delivered, it ruined up to 15 million doses and halted future shipments until quality control measures were evaluated.
Federal officials still expect to receive enough doses from Johnson & Johnson and other vaccine makers to meet President Biden’s pledge to provide enough vaccine by the end of May to immunize every adult, reported the Times.
But state officials are skeptical.
“All of that is obviously changing with this now,” Baden said of Oregon’s similar schedule.
Baden said he did not expect a Johnson & Johnson vaccine shortage to pose substantial problems for the next wave of Oregonians who will become vaccine eligible on April 5, which includes people aged 16 to 44 years old with qualifying medical conditions and many frontline workers.
But he said it might take longer to find a date.
“Fewer vaccines means fewer appointments for people to be vaccinated,” he said.
Meanwhile, Baden said he currently does not see a scenario in which Oregon increases its vaccine eligibility schedule for the general population before May 1, although it is postponed to Brown.
Asked about Washington’s decision to make residents eligible on April 15 and whether Oregon would speed up its timeline, a spokesperson for the governor did not respond directly.
“Oregon’s immunization schedule is dictated by the availability of federal government supplies,” Charles Boyle said in a statement, “and we have expanded eligibility as quickly as possible as more supplies became available. . “
– Brad Schmidt; [email protected]; 503-294-7628; @_brad_schmidt
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