“We cannot control Mother Nature, no one can, but we can certainly make contingency plans,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said on ABC’s “This Week” program.
“We were able to distribute about 2 million of those 6 million doses. We hope to recover quickly this week, fill this accumulation, ensure that they are delivered to communities and also meet our dose schedules and schedules that are due out next week,” said Psaki.
Texas suffered a devastating week of sub-zero temperatures and winter storms, with conditions worsening due to widespread power outages across the state, affecting millions of homes and businesses. And other parts of the country have faced similar cold temperatures, snow and ice, delaying deliveries and schedules for Covid-19 vaccines and complicating the distribution of the Biden administration’s vaccine.
On Friday, Andy Slavitt, senior consultant on the Covid-19 White House response team, said at a meeting at the White House that there was an accumulation of around 6 million Covid-19 vaccines due to the winter weather and that everyone the 50 states were affected.
And the White House acknowledged last week that officials were working to increase scheduled deliveries, increase shipping operations and potentially extend hours at vaccination sites.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical advisor to President Joe Biden and the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, projected on Sunday that the United States will be caught midweek with delays, calling it a “temporary setback.”
“Obviously, it is a setback because you would like to see the steady flow of vaccines reaching people, but we can play to catch up,” said Fauci in an interview on Sunday at NBC.
“When you just, you know, put your foot on the gas and really push, we’re going to get to where we need to be in the middle of the week,” he said.