The US has entered a difficult phase of the COVID-19 vaccination effort, as providers try to increase the number of people receiving the first vaccines, while ensuring that more and more people receive the second dose even when several million Americans become eligible to receive vaccines.
The need to give each person two doses a few weeks away greatly complicates the largest vaccination campaign in the country. And persistent uncertainty about future vaccine supplies fuels concerns that some people will not be able to get their second shot on time.
In some cases, local health departments and providers have said they need to temporarily limit or even cancel appointments for the first doses to make sure there are enough second doses for people who need them.
Nola Rudolph said she struggled to book appointments for her 71-year-old father and 68-year-old mother, who live in rural New York State. Everywhere he looked the driving distance was reserved.
“Seeing that they are eligible, I was thrilled,” she said. “Seeing that they were in a dead zone, I went from hope to despair again.”
She managed to arrange a second dose for her father, but she still couldn’t find a slot for her mother. “It’s like walking in a circle.”
In the last month or so, the United States has received an average of 900,000 first doses each day, according to data from The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Now, many of these people must receive the second dose, and the average number of Americans receiving the second blow reached Tuesday – 539,000 a day in the last week.
The growing demand for the second dose comes as the Biden administration takes steps to increase the supply of doses.
COVID-19 White House Coordinator Jeff Zients announced Tuesday that states will see the allocation of doses increase to 11 million per week starting next week, up from more than 2 million weekly doses since President Joe Biden took office.
Since the vaccine was licensed in late December, about 33 million people in the United States have been shot.
“It’s really important and critical to recognize that there are still not enough doses to go around,” said Dr. Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
To date, approximately 10% of the US population has received at least one dose of vaccine. About 3% received both doses, the AP analysis showed.
Across Los Angeles County, health officials say the limited supply means most vaccinations this week will be for secondary doses. In Napa County, some meetings for the first dose were canceled last week to make sure they will be enough for the second dose.
“We get a lot of questions from community members asking, ‘Is my second dose in danger?’ “And right now, we don’t have an answer, because it all depends on the inventory coming from the state,” said Alfredo Pedroza, a county supervisor.
Both COVID-19 vaccines distributed in the US require two photos a few weeks apart to maximize protection. For Pfizer, doses should be separated by three weeks. For Moderna, it’s four weeks. But if necessary, the recall will be postponed for up to six weeks, according to the CDC, which updated its guide late last month.
Local and local health officials are now emphasizing an extended time frame in public messaging to alleviate concerns that people may not receive the second blow on time.
Federal officials said they were confident there would be enough doses to make sure people got the second shot.
Feeding concerns in some places is the difficulty of reserving the second dose. Although many places schedule the booster when the first shot is fired, others ask people to schedule it later due to logistical issues.
Tanny O’Haley is 64 years old and has Parkinson’s, but is not eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine in Los Angeles County, where she lives. He managed to receive a first dose when he accompanied his 69-year-old wife to her vaccination, as the site was left behind by a blow.
O’Haley was unable to schedule his second dose, despite numerous calls to local officials and the county health department. He plans to try again when he brings his wife to a second meeting on Wednesday.
“The whole experience was pretty awful,” O’Haley said.
In New Hampshire, officials are abandoning the current programming system after thousands of people fought to reserve their amplifiers within the recommended time – some are given appointments for two months later. People will now receive meetings for the second blow when they receive the first.
New Hampshire is one of several local jurisdictions that have signed up to use the CDC or VAMS vaccine delivery system.
At the Las Vegas Convention Center in Nevada, another type of scheduling issue arose last week, when the site opened as a clinic dedicated only to secondary doses. When appointments were made available online, people eager for the first doses made slots.
“We’ve had enough vaccine – we just need to control the crowd somehow,” said JoAnn Rupiper of the Southern Nevada Health District.
People who scheduled a first dose on the spot had their appointments canceled, Rupiper said. To ensure that eligible people who have had trouble setting up online appointments receive a second photo, the convention center allows shared access.
Despite the scheduling confusion, health officials and providers say their main challenge remains the limited supply and variability in the number of doses delivered from week to week. Even with the increase in deliveries announced by President Joe Biden’s administration, local officials and suppliers say they do not have enough doses to meet demand.
The lack is one of the reasons why Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading infectious disease expert, noted the potential value of the single vaccine in a single injection by Johnson & Johnson, which recently applied for emergency use. That photo is also less expensive to produce and easier to ship.
Pedroza said the cancellations last week in Napa County, California, came after an increase in deliveries a few weeks ago led the county to believe it would continue to receive at least as many doses. But the tip turned out to be only once, Pedroza said.
In Seattle, UW Medicine temporarily stopped taking new appointments at the end of January due to limited deliveries, combined with the need to give others a second dose.
“If there were more offers, we would be happy to have more appointments with the first dose,” said Cynthia Dold, associate vice president of clinical operations at UW Medicine.
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Associated Press journalists Paul J. Weber of Texas, Nicky Forster in New York, Olga R. Rodriguez in San Francisco, Michelle R. Smith in Providence, Rhode Island, and Holly Ramer in Concord, New Hampshire, contributed to the report.
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The Associated Press Department of Health and Science receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education. AP is solely responsible for all content.