Amid reports that former President Donald Trump’s outgoing government has not left a national vaccination plan for new President Joe Biden, cities in New York, Mississippi and South Carolina have canceled scheduled vaccination appointments due to a lack of doses available.
“There is no plan, or there was no plan, for the Trump administration in terms of distribution, how to really talk to the public about these vaccines and educate [people] about why they are so important to your health, “Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Minnesota who is a member of Biden’s coronavirus advisory board, told WBUR.
“What we are inheriting from the Trump administration is much worse than we could have imagined,” Jeff Zients, coordinator of Biden’s COVID-19, told reporters on Wednesday night. “We don’t have the visibility that we would like to have on delivery and allocations.”
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On Thursday, Biden unveiled his national coronavirus strategy, which included his already-vaunted goal of administering 100 million vaccines during the first 100 days in office – in other words, until April 30.
But while Biden signed an executive order on Thursday invoking the Defense Production Act to increase vaccine production and another order directing states to create more vaccine centers in public places like stadiums, convention centers and pharmacies, specialists in health say there is a shortage of available medication doses that can take months to correct and also a misallocation of currently available doses.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that although about 38 million doses have been distributed, according to the Politico, only about half have been administered, leaving a gap of about 19 million unused doses.
During the White House COVID task force briefing on Thursday, infectious disease specialist and coronavirus advisory board, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said, “This is something we really need to examine closely,” adding: “The that would be more worrying is the vaccine out there. “
Under the Trump administration, states were not informed by the federal government of how many doses to expect and when, leaving them to plan under an air of uncertainty, according to Politico.
Operating under this uncertainty, cities in several states across the country are canceling vaccination appointments due to lack of dosages.
Baptist Health South Florida had to cancel some of its 12,000 vaccination appointments, according to NBC News, and officials in San Francisco, New York and New Jersey also said they were running out.
Across New York State, 26,300 of those appointments have been canceled, according to Bloomberg News and WGRZ.
On January 15, Beaufort Memorial Hospital in Beaufort, South Carolina, canceled 6,000 scheduled appointments, citing a lack of available doses. Although the hospital ordered more than 2,000 vaccines for the beginning of the month, they received only 450 vaccines.
On January 14, the Mississippi State Department of Health (MSDH) said it would not be able to vaccinate all eligible individuals until it received a new batch of doses in mid-February.
The MSDH announcement came a day after Republican state governor Tate Reeves told residents to apply for vaccines amid an increase in new cases of COVID-19. His instructions overwhelmed the vaccination scheduling website and the state’s hotline.
“The Mississippi State Department of Health expects to receive a large shipment of vaccine in mid-February, which should help put additional vaccines in people’s arms,” said the MSDH statement. “We understand the frustration caused by this sudden change in plans.”
Newsweek contacted the White House for comment.