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Vaccine allocations to hospitals in western Pennsylvania are not enough to immunize all who are eligible, health officials said Tuesday.
State officials last week extended Phase 1A of the distribution plan beyond healthcare workers and long-term care residents – to include those over 65 and those with various health problems. The change came days after health officials learned the federal vaccine stock was depleted and supply disruptions were likely to occur as a result. Last week, some systems suspended appointments for vaccines because all available doses had been taken into account.
And on Tuesday, Governor Tom Wolf and Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam lamented a “frustrating” supply problem with the vaccine in Pennsylvania.
After repeated requests from the Tribune-Review, a spokesperson for the Department of Health said the expansion was made to align with advice from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and “because it fits Pennsylvania’s goal of deploying covid-19 vaccines in a way that puts people first. , while the supply of vaccines remains limited, who receive the vaccine to maximize benefits and minimize harm from the virus, promote justice, reduce health inequalities and promote transparency.
But health experts say the expansion has done little to deliver the vaccine to those who need it most, noting that nearly 4 million people are now eligible. Dr Don Whiting, chief medical officer of Allegheny Health Network, said the AHN receives an average of around 10,000 doses per week and their arrival is irregular. The network has the manpower capacity to administer roughly double that each week, if only they had the supply.
“There are several million people, so the numbers just don’t add up,” Whiting said. “The state change in age groups was driven by the federal change in age groups, which was motivated by a more national view of how things were done in different states. … I think the message, in the average person, creates some confusion.
Barry Ciccocioppo, a spokesperson for the health department, said the state is asking the federal government for the maximum allotment of available vaccines. The Commonwealth does not have its own stock of vaccines, he said.
“We ask the Pennsylvanians to be patient,” he said. “This is a global pandemic and vaccine manufacturers are working to deliver doses around the world.”
Ciccocioppo said state providers were receiving a “constant flow” of about 140,000 doses per week. But health officials in the region have said the arrival of vaccines is much less predictable.
Dr Carol Fox, chief medical officer of Excela Health, said the system expects an additional vaccine allocation “in the coming weeks”.
“We don’t know, at this time, how often to expect more benefits,” she said in a statement. “We hope that as the supply becomes more abundant, we will receive more vaccines.”
UPMC’s quality manager Tami Minnier said the system has yet to receive notification on when and how much new vaccine is coming to support Phase 1A expansion.
“We look forward to vaccinating more people in the communities we serve and having the infrastructure, staff and clinics to do so,” she said in a statement. “When we are informed that more vaccines are on their way to support the larger Phase 1A group, we will engage the public and give them clear instructions on how to request the vaccination.”
The latest vaccine update comes amid a slow rollout of the vaccine marred by confusion and inconsistencies in distribution. Meanwhile, the United States is rushing to administer the vaccines as quickly as possible, as new, more transmissible virus variants threaten the population. President Joe Biden this week pledged to administer 100 million vaccines in his first 100 days in office – a rate of 1 million vaccines per day.
At this rate, Biden said he hopes everyone who wants a vaccine will be vaccinated in the spring.
Health officials are eager to contribute to this goal, even though they are unsure how it can be achieved at the current rate in Pennsylvania. Whiting noted that health care leaders in Pennsylvania are unaware of the specifics of federal inventory and measures to increase the efficiency of the production line in vaccine manufacturing.
“I don’t think (Biden) would say that unless I had the information that it was doable, which would be very encouraging for all of us,” Whiting said.
From the start, Whiting said, the vaccine rollout in the United States did not meet a unified national response, which could have contributed to poor communication as well as manufacturing delays. He said adding more vaccine options – like those from Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca, which are expected to be approved for emergency use by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration – will be crucial in accelerating the process. pace.
“There are a lot of things that can be done to make this smoother and better,” he said. “Transparency and consistency of message, I think, are the two things that are under our control right now.”
Teghan Simonton is a staff writer for Tribune-Review. You can contact Teghan at 724-226-4680, [email protected] or via Twitter .
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