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NEW YORK – Efforts to vaccinate Americans against the coronavirus are hit by a roadblock: a number of states are reporting they are running out of vaccine and tens of thousands who have managed to secure appointments for a first dose sees them canceled.
The full explanation for the apparent mismatch between supply and demand was unclear, but last week the US Department of Health and Human Services suggested that states have unrealistic expectations about the quantity vaccine on the way.
The shortages come as states dramatically scale up their immunization campaigns, led by the federal government, to reach people 65 and older, as well as other groups deemed essential or at high risk. More than 400,000 deaths in the United States have been attributed to the virus.
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First-grade teacher Karen Stachowiak spent nearly five hours on the New York State hotline and website to land an appointment for Wednesday, only to then cancel it. The Buffalo-area resident and her parents were among several thousand people whose appointments had been canceled in Erie County due to supply issues.
“It’s stressful because I was so close. And my other friends who are teachers, they were able to make appointments for last Saturday,” Stachowiak said. “So many people take theirs and then it’s like, ‘No, I have to wait. “”
About half of the 31 million doses distributed to states by the federal government have been administered so far, although only about 2 million people have received the two doses needed for maximum protection against COVID-19, according to the reports. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. .
European countries are also struggling to get enough doses to provide protection against a virus that is now appearing in new, more contagious variants around the world.
Pfizer said last week that it would temporarily reduce shipments of its vaccine to Europe and Canada while improving the capacity of its plant in Belgium, which supplies all vaccines delivered outside the United States. In the United States, Pfizer has a plant in Michigan.
In the United States, some states have suggested they could run out of vaccine by Thursday and don’t know when new doses will arrive.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday the city had to cancel 23,000 appointments for people waiting for their first dose this week due to insufficient supplies. The mayor, who has sounded the alarm bells over vaccine shortages for days, said the situation was made worse by a delay in delivering the Moderna vaccine this week to the city.
“So we were already feeling the stress of a vaccine shortage,” he said. “Now the situation has been even worse. We have to think differently right now.”
The city’s health commissioner, Dr Dave Chokshi, said the 103,400 doses of Moderna due for delivery on Tuesday – 54,200 first doses and 49,200 second doses – are now due on Wednesday and Thursday.
Citing a statewide shortage of vaccines, the New York Police Department has suspended first-injection vaccinations for its officers.
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In Florida, local media reported a similar problem in the Miami area, where the Baptist health care system canceled appointments that were scheduled for the first doses.
“I could have blown my head with steam,” Charlotte Reeve, 76, told the Miami Herald. “I am also a fairly recent widow. For me having to be locked up alone in my house is just devastating to me. … I feel like my knees are cut, again.
The San Francisco Department of Health said it was likely to run out of vaccine on Thursday, in part because the state withdrew from administering a batch of Moderna vaccines after several health workers suffered what could have been a bad reaction. The county health department received 12,000 doses last week but less than 2,000 this week.
West Virginia, which has run one of the fastest vaccination drives in the country, in part using pharmacies in small towns, said it had not received a planned dose increase this week. With 99.6% of the first doses already administered, officials are calling on the government to send more.
“Here we are without vaccines,” said Republican Gov. Jim Justice, worried that other states have unused doses. “We have them all in people’s arms and we did exactly what we should have done.… I think the performance should be rewarded.”
He said the state had not received the 25,000 additional doses promised this week on top of its usual weekly allowance of around 23,000.
Hawaii officials have complained that the state received 59,000 doses last week, but is only expecting about 32,000 this week.
In New York state, Barbara Carr, a 72-year-old retiree in Buffalo, was distraught when her vaccine appointment for Thursday was canceled. But she was able to quickly get another appointment at a local pharmacy and received her first dose on Tuesday.
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Now she is worried about her two children, who are teachers. Their appointments have been canceled.
“They haven’t had any luck with the planning, no phone calls, no communication whatsoever other than ‘You’re canceled’,” Carr said. “The poor teachers. … I can stay home to hide from the virus. They can’t.”
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