States report confusion as government reduces vaccine shipments, while Pfizer says it has 'millions'

[Eugene]

Source: Washington Post

States report confusion as government reduces vaccine shipments, while Pfizer says it has ‘millions’ of unclaimed doses

By Isaac Stanley-Becker, Yasmeen Abutaleb, Lena H. Sun and Josh Dawsey
12/17/2020, 6:35:50 p.m.

Officials in multiple states said they were alerted late Wednesday that their second shipments of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine had been drastically cut for next week, sparking widespread confusion and conflicting statements from Pfizer and federal officials about who was at fault.

The reduction prompted concern in health departments across the country about whether Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s vaccine accelerator program, could distribute doses quickly enough to meet the target of delivering first shots to 20 million people by year’s end.

A senior administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal plans, said the revised estimates were the result of states’ requesting an expedited timeline for locking in their allocations for the following week; notification of how many doses they could order each week was consequently advanced from Friday to Tuesday. Since Pfizer is producing doses daily, the official said, fewer doses were available Tuesday than will be available on Friday.

But Pfizer released a statement Thursday that seemed to contradict that explanation, saying the company faced no production difficulties and had many more doses immediately available than were being distributed.

“We have millions more doses sitting in our warehouse but, as of now, we have not received any shipment instructions for additional doses,” the statement read.

-snip-

Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/12/17/pfizer-vaccine-supply-states/

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Related DU thread: Several States Notified Of Reduction In Planned Vaccine Shipments, Raising Questions - Rachel Maddow

[sprinkleeninow]

1. Administration's 'explanation'. Another version full of gobbledygook guvno.

[mucifer]

2. trump and his goons want as many people to die as possible

[My Pet Orangutan]

3. LIHOP, MIHOP, or absolute shit for brains,

we knew this was going to happen

[duforsure]

4. Intentional?

Just another display of corruption that will be used against them at their trials.

[blueinredohio]

5. Can't states go ahead and buy the vaccine on their own?

Then when Biden gets inaugurated have the federal government pay them back.

[Eugene]

6. The U.S. and other countries have dibs on many months of production.

Even the U.S. government will have to wait in line after it turned down an offer to buy additional doses from Pfizer.

Pfizer's vaccine output is already reserved through second quarter 2021.

EDIT: better specifics

https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/14/covid-vaccine-us-passed-on-more-pfizer-doses-in-november-says-board-member-gottlieb.html

[blueinredohio]

7. Why are they saying they don't know where to send it?

[Eugene]

9. It's the government's job to direct vaccine distribution. HHS controls the shipments

and is giving conflicting explanations why it won't issue shipping orders.

The most recent excuses are:
a. HHS wants to hold some doses back to guarantee supply for 2nd doses.
b. HHS is holding some back just in case something goes wrong.

If the above doesn't make sense to you, I can't swallow it either. They just can't get their story straight.

[disndat]

8. Trump's Possible

$$interest in pushing Moderna?