More than a dozen states now report that federals have reduced their COVID-19 vaccine allocation, leading to questions about the Trump administration’s planning for the distribution effort.
Experts in vaccination and the medical supply chains with which he contacted TPM expressed their dismay and confusion over the situation.
The states from California to Maine said their vaccine allocations have been reduced while Pfizer, the manufacturer, said it still has “millions of doses in our warehouse, but so far we have not received any shipping instructions for doses.” more. “
For Bruce Y. Lee, a health policy professor at CUNY who helped shape the launch of the H1N1 vaccine, it suggests a logistical problem.
“When vaccines are produced and kept in storage, that means something didn’t work well with the supply chain,” Lee said. “That it was not coordinated.”
He added that the reduction in vaccine deliveries, in some cases by 30 percent and in others by much more, comes amid concerns about “what is the supply chain plan and delivery system and this has not been very clear”.
Warp Speed operations and CDC officials briefed states on reducing vaccine shipments in a call on Wednesday, blaming manufacturing issues at Pfizer. HHS Secretary Alex Azar did the same in an interview Thursday morning.
Pfizer has denied this, saying it has not yet received orders to send its doses.
“It’s very difficult to plan when you have no idea what you’re getting or if you have an idea that’s off,” Claire Hannan, director of the Coalition for Action on Immunization, told TPM.
Mark Capofari, former director of global logistics at Merck, said the supply chain for an effort such as national vaccine distribution was extremely complex and added that it was unclear whether the Trump administration had “over-employed.”[ed] how many patients can be fully inoculated from the beginning. “
The Trump administration has tried to account for the problem by telling states that they are just wrong. According to an HHS spokesman to the TPM, “Warp Speed allocation numbers blocked in states have not been changed or adjusted.”
The spokesman added that Operation Warp Speed is offering official allocation numbers to states for next week and that it should not be based on other numbers.
But Hannan said HHS actually defined the “official” allocation number to the final amount in the shipping queue hours before the doses arrived.
“I think it’s very hard to hear HHS coming out and saying it’s wrong, that their allowances haven’t been reduced,” Hannan said. “And then you hear him say this is a planning estimate and you don’t rely on it until it’s actually queuing to order.”
“If we do that, if we wait until something is in line to order, then there is no planning at all,” Hannan added, saying it significantly reduces the time states plan to distribute the dose allocations they receive. .
Logistical problems are exacerbated by the continuing lack of federal funding or support for those who actually inject the vaccine at the state and local levels.
It remains a mystery where the vaccine doses went and why they were not shipped. Operation Warp Speed works with FedEx and UPS to distribute Pfizer doses; none of the companies provided an explanation for what might happen.
FedEx sent the TPM to the government and said it was working “to transport the vaccines according to the instructions in their allocation and distribution plans. It is not up to us to decide who gets the vaccines. “
UPS said three packets of vaccines were delayed Thursday, but are expected to be delivered by the end of the day.
HHS Deputy Health Secretary Brett Giroir said in a statement on Friday that the government is withholding doses for the second dose of two-shot vaccines.
Nobody leaves #Covid vaccines stay in a warehouse! We need to set aside doses for the 2.9 million who are vaccinated this week to make sure they have stockpiled in 21 days. There is also 500k emergency reserve. Expect 7.9 million vaccines delivered in the coming weeks (Pfizer and Moderna).
– ADM Brett P. Giroir (@HHS_ASH) December 18, 2020
Hannan said Giroir numbers will be just part, but not all, of the doses retained.
“Mathematically, there are several doses that need to be considered,” Hannan said. Operation Warp Speed is committed to delivering 20 million doses by 2021.
“If I keep doses, then how did they come up with that specific number? And how is this based on the production schedule? Lee asked.
Lee added that it is unclear why the Trump administration will coordinate the second dose nationally after delegating the rest of the local distribution policy to state and local officials.
“You can’t have it both ways: if you’re going to coordinate when people come back for the second national shot, then you have to decide how you’re going to distribute at the national level,” he added. .