Responding to growing frustration over vaccine shortages, President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. is accelerating deliveries to hard-pressed states over the next three weeks and expects to deliver enough doses to vaccinate 300 million Americans by late summer or early autumn.
Biden, calling the impetus a “war effort,” said Tuesday that the administration is working to buy another 100 million doses of each of the two approved coronavirus vaccines. He acknowledged that states in recent weeks have been left to guess how many vaccines they will have from one week to the next.
The shortage was so severe that some vaccination sites in the United States had to cancel tens of thousands of meetings with people seeking their first shot.
“This is unacceptable,” Biden said. “Lives are at stake.”
He promised a 16% increase in deliveries to states over the next three weeks.
The administration said it intends to buy another 100 million doses each from drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna to make sure it has enough vaccine in the long run. Even more vaccine could be available if federal scientists approve a single dose from Johnson & Johnson, which is expected to seek emergency clearance in the coming weeks.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the government plans to make approximately 10.1 million doses of the first and second doses next week, compared to this week’s allocation of 8.6 million. The figures represent doses of both Pfizer vaccines and Moderna vaccines. It was not immediately clear how long the dose increase could be sustained.
Governors and senior health officials have increasingly sounded the alarm about the inadequate supply and the need for earlier and more reliable estimates of the amount of vaccine on the road so that they can plan.
Biden’s team on Tuesday sustained the first virus-related call with the nation’s governors and pledged to give states firm vaccine allocations three weeks before delivery.
Biden’s announcement came a day after it grew stronger in terms of exceeding its vaccination commitment to deliver 100 million injections in the first 100 days of operation, suggesting a rate of 1.5 million doses per day. could be reached soon.
The administration also promised more openness and said it would hold news meetings three times a week, starting Wednesday, about the outbreak that killed more than 420,000 Americans.
“We appreciate the administration saying it will provide slightly higher allocations to states for the next few weeks, but we will need much more supply,” said Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican.
The configuration inherited from the Trump administration has been marked by misinformation and unexplained blockages, with deficiencies reported in some places, even though vaccine doses remain on the shelf.
West Virginia officials, who had one of the best vaccine rates, said they had less than 11,000 first doses at hand even after the week’s delivery.
“I’m screaming for more,” said Republican Gov. Jim Justice.
California, which has faced criticism over the slow release of vaccines, said Tuesday it is centralizing its mix of county systems and streamlining enrollment, notification and appointment eligibility. The inhabitants were puzzled by the different rules in different counties.
In Colorado, too, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis said the federal government’s limited supply of vaccines is causing the state to reinstate the second dose as the first dose, although people scheduled for the second shot are expected to be able to keep their appointments. .
The weekly allocation cycle for the first doses begins Monday night, when federal officials analyze data on vaccine availability from manufacturers to determine how much each state can have. Allocations are based on the population of each jurisdiction of persons over the age of 18.
States are notified on Tuesday of their allocations through a computer network called Tiberius and other channels, after which they can specify where the doses will be sent. Deliveries begin next Monday.
A similar but separate process for ordering two doses, which should be given three to four weeks after the first, begins each week on Sunday evening.
On Tuesday afternoon, the CDC reported that just over half of the 44 million doses distributed to states had been placed in people’s arms. This is well over the hundreds of millions of doses that experts say will need to be administered to gain the herd’s immunity and conquer the outbreak.
The United States ranks fifth in the world in terms of the number of doses given in relation to the country’s population, behind No. 1 Israel, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom and Bahrain, according to Oxford University.
The reason why not many photos available in the US have not been distributed is not entirely clear. But many vaccination sites apparently keep large amounts of vaccine in reserve to ensure that people who have already received the first vaccine receive the second needed vaccine on time.
Some state officials also complained about a gap between when they report their vaccination number to the government and when the figures are posted on the CDC website.
In the New Orleans area, Ochsner Health said Monday that the inadequate supply forced it to cancel 21,400 meetings for the first dose last week, but that appointments for the second dose are not affected.
In North Carolina, Greensboro-based Cone Health has announced that it is canceling appointments for the first dose for 10,000 people and moving them to a waiting list due to supply problems.
Jesse Williams, 81, of Reidsville, North Carolina, said his appointment with Cone Health was scratched on Thursday and is waiting to hear when it could be rescheduled. The former volunteer firefighter hoped the vaccine would allow him to resume church attendance, playing golf and seeing friends.
“It’s just a frustration that we expected to have photos and be a little more resistant to COVID-19,” he said.
The launch of the vaccine in the European Union from the 27 nations also hit obstacles and was criticized as too slow. Pfizer delays deliveries as it upgrades its Belgian plant to increase capacity. AstraZeneca also revealed that the initial shipment will be smaller than expected.
The EU, with 450 million citizens, is calling on pharmaceutical companies to live up to their commitments on time.
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Associated Press writers in the United States contributed to this report.
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Find full coverage of the coronavirus pandemic AP at https://apnews.com/hub/coronavirus-pandemic