(Newser)
– U.S. military leaders said Thursday that recent problems with Johnson & Johnson’s coronavirus vaccine made it more difficult to provide fire for overseas forces and that the vaccines were offered to families of service members or other Level 2 beneficiaries in just 40 percent of the site. outside the United States. Speaking at a Pentagon news conference, they said they were making up for Johnson & Johnson’s shortage by transporting more Moderna vaccines to forces outside the country. Temperature and other requirements for the Pfizer vaccine make it more difficult to send abroad. Johnson & Johnson had to drop 15 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine last month because the batch did not meet quality standards. The loss of the expected vaccines was a bigger problem for the military, AP reports, because it targeted Johnson & Johnson shots for distribution abroad, because it requires a single dose and does not need strict temperature control that others do.
Lt. Gen. Ronald Place, director of the Defense Health Agency, told reporters that, based on President Biden’s latest guidance for all adults, vaccines will be offered to all eligible troops, family members and other beneficiaries beginning April 19. and their families abroad have expressed frustration with their inability to obtain a vaccine, especially as many are in areas, including Europe, that have been hit hard by the pandemic. Place said that in many locations, vaccines are still only offered to Level 1 people, including deployed troops, health or emergency workers and beneficiaries aged 65 and over. He added that while only 7% of the eligible Department of Defense population is outside the United States, the Pentagon delivers 14% of the doses it receives abroad. However, for members of the service or their families abroad who have not been vaccinated or have not been told when they will be, “these numbers mean nothing,” Place said. “And it’s understandably frustrating.”
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