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NEW YORK (AP) – The push to vaccinate Americans against the coronavirus hits a roadblock: a number of states report they are running out of vaccine and tens of thousands who have managed to obtain appointment for a first dose see them canceled.
Karen Stachowiak, a first-grade teacher in the Buffalo area, spent nearly five hours on the hotline and on the state website to get an appointment for Wednesday, only to be told he had been canceled. The Erie County Department of Health said it had wiped out vaccines for more than 8,000 people in the past few days due to insufficient supplies.
“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. “There are so many people bringing theirs in, then it’s like, ‘No, I have to wait.'”
The reason for the apparent mismatch between supply and demand in the United States was unclear, but last week the Department of Health and Human Services suggested that states had unrealistic expectations about the amount of vaccines on their way.
Either way, new shipments are being shipped every week, and the government and drug makers have said there are large amounts in the pipeline.
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 some others. More than 400,000 deaths in the United States have been attributed to the virus.
President Joe Biden, who was inaugurated on Wednesday, immediately came under pressure to work things out. He made it clear that his administration was going to take a bigger part in attacking the crisis, and he promised to administer 100 million shots in his first 100 days.
Less than half of the 36 million doses distributed to states by the federal government have been administered so far, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Public health officials said the gap could reflect delays in record keeping as well as disarray and other failures at various levels of government over gunfire.
In a statement, HHS said jurisdictions actually received about a 5% increase in vaccine allocations this week compared to what they got in the past two weeks.
European countries are also experiencing problems 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 it would temporarily reduce deliveries to Europe and Canada while improving capacity at its factory in Belgium, which supplies all shots delivered outside the United States. Pfizer’s primary vaccine manufacturing site in the United States is in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
In the United States, some states have suggested they could run out by Thursday and aren’t sure when new doses will arrive.
New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday the city had to cancel 23,000 appointments for people waiting for their first dose this week. The New York Police Department has suspended first-injection vaccinations for its officers.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has said he expects the state to run out of its vaccine supply within two or three days for people seeking their first dose.
“What is clear now is that we will be going week to week, and you will see a constant tendency to miss, wait for next week’s allowance and restart,” he said. He urged health facilities not to schedule appointments to distribute vaccines that have not yet been allocated.
In Florida, local media reported a similar problem in the Miami area, where the Baptist health care system canceled appointments 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 in my house alone is just devastating for 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.
In a statement, Moderna said it was on track to deliver 100 million doses by the end of the first quarter of the year and 200 million by the end of the second quarter.
Pfizer, the maker of the other vaccine used in the United States, said it had duly fulfilled government orders over the past two weeks. He said he was working around the clock to produce millions more doses each day and did not foresee any problems meeting his commitment to deliver 200 million by the end of July.
West Virginia, which has hosted one of the fastest vaccination drives in the country, said it had not received a planned dose increase this week. With 99.6% of the first doses in hand already administered, officials are calling for more.
“Here we are without vaccines,” said Republican Gov. Jim Justice, concerned 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 performance should be rewarded.
Ohio Governor Mike DeWine has pleaded with the new Biden administration for more doses as the state grapples with high hospitalizations and a death toll exceeding 10,000.
“We are not lacking in infrastructure,” DeWine said in a letter. “We are running out of vaccine.”
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 pharmacy appointment and received her first dose.
Now she is worried about her two children, who are teachers. Their appointments have been canceled.
“They haven’t had any luck with the rescheduling, no phone calls, no communication whatsoever other than ‘You’re canceled’,” Carr said. “The poor teachers. … I can stay at home to hide from the virus. They can not.
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Hill reported from Albany, New York.
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