Originally, each vial of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine was designed to contain five doses, but some pharmacists reported being able to extract six doses when using certain syringes.
As a result, the FDA approved an updated label that reads: “Low dead volume syringes and / or needles can be used to extract six doses from a single vial. If standard syringes and needles are used, there may not be sufficient volume. to get a sixth dose from a single vial. “
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said this increase in doses per vial provides “an additional 20% capacity.” The New York Times first reported Pfizer’s plans to base its vaccination obligation on doses rather than vials.
Dr. However, Sanjay Gupta, CNN’s chief medical correspondent, said on Friday that the ability to collect the sixth dose with these syringes is not universally available.
“They’re in many places,” Gupta told CNN’s John Berman, “but not in every place.”
These changes underscore the push to get as many people vaccinated as possible amid an inconsistent supply chain.
As vaccination efforts increase, the pandemic continues unabated. Johns Hopkins University reported more than 186,000 new cases and 3,655 new deaths on Friday. At least 414,004 people have died in the US from Covid-19.
‘These shouldn’t be the Hunger Games’
According to Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, a lack of information and lack of financial backing means states are struggling to manage a slow rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine.
“I qualify for a vaccination in Minnesota and I can’t find one,” Osterholm, a former coronavirus advisor to President Joe Biden, told CNN’s Erin Burnett on Friday. “I want to share that frustration loud and clear.”
Utah Governor Spencer Cox told CNN’s Chris Cuomo that the state is well-positioned for distribution, but that the supply of vaccines across the country has been cut at private pharmacies.
“Long-term care facilities in Utah have way too many vaccines. We estimate they have 15 to 16,000 extra doses that they don’t need and can’t use right now. So we’ll take that back and we’ll give it to our local community. health departments and it will be gone next week, ”said Cox.
Frustrations over vaccine distribution and concerns over supply have echoed across the country.
Louisiana has not set up mass vaccination sites because it does not have enough vaccine to operate a site, Governor John Bel Edwards said Friday.
New York State has delivered 97% of its assigned first doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, Governor Andrew Cuomo said Friday, and is expected to run out shortly.
Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that she gets daily calls from people who are “desperate for the vaccine,” adding, “I just don’t see an abundance of vaccines.”
Utah’s Cox said competition between states at the start of the pandemic, when the federal government forced states to scream for supplies like personal protective equipment, should be avoided in the case of vaccines.
“This shouldn’t be the Hunger Games, as it was with PPE, right. That was ridiculous and we all had to play that game,” he said. “We’re all in this together. Governors are in this together. We just need insight from the federal government and the manufacturers,” Cox said.
New administration, new realities
Biden’s coronavirus advisers are hopeful that shortages can be prevented, said Dr. Vivek Murthy, who is the nominee for Surgeon General, during a webcast to mayors on Friday.
Discussions with companies “have given us more confidence that more supply is on the way and that it will continue to grow steadily in the coming months,” added Murthy.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Friday that he expects positive news in the coming weeks about a Johnson & Johnson single-dose coronavirus vaccine.
“I don’t want to get ahead of them, but I have to tell you I would be surprised if it took more than two weeks for the data to be analyzed and decisions made,” Fauci said on MSNBC.
At least 195 cases of the variant have been identified in 22 US states, according to the CDC.
“It hasn’t become dominant,” said Fauci. ‘Maybe. That’s why you have to keep a close eye on it when we go from January to February, and really look closely. ‘
Fauci agreed with the health recommendations. “That’s the kind of thing that prevents spikes, regardless … the type of virus.”
CNN’s Maggie Fox, Madeline Holcombe, Lauren Mascarenhas, Raja Razek, Chuck Johnston, Hollie Silverman, Amanda Watts, Nick Neville, Andrea Diaz, Naomi Thomas, Michael Nedelman and Alta Spells contributed to this report.