On this December 29, 2020, archival photo, Penny Cracas, with Chester County, Pennsylvania, Department of Health, fills a syringe with the Modern COVID-19 vaccine before administering it to emergency medical workers and health personnel Chester County Government Service Center in West Chester, Pa.
Matt Slocum / AP
Oregon Governor Kate Brown said on Friday morning that the state’s efforts to quickly accelerate COVID-19 vaccinations were hampered by what she called a “mass deception” by the Trump administration.
“Last night, I received disturbing news, confirmed to me directly by General Perna of Operation Warp Speed: states will no longer receive shipments of vaccines from the national stock next week, because there is no federal dose reserve,” Brown said on Twitter.
Last night, I received disturbing news, confirmed directly to me by General Perna of Operation Warp Speed: states will no longer receive vaccine shipments from the national stock next week, because there is no federal dose reserve.
– Governor Kate Brown (@OregonGovBrown) January 15, 2021
“I am demanding responses from the Trump administration. I am shocked and shocked that they have set an expectation that they were unable to fulfill, with such serious consequences ”, she continued. “This is a nationwide mistake. Oregon’s elders, the teachers, all of us, depended on the promise that part of the federal vaccine reserve in Oregon would be released to us. “
The governor’s tweets on Friday morning suggest a major setback, less than a day after the Oregon Health Authority said it had achieved its goal of administering 12,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine a day and was preparing to expand further. this effort.
US Army General Gustave Perna, chief of operations for Operation Warp Speed, speaks during a press conference about Operation Warp Speed and the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine, Tuesday, January 12, 2021, in Washington . According to Oregon Governor Kate Brown, Perna told her Thursday night that states will no longer receive shipments of vaccines from the national stockpile next week, as expected.
Patrick Semansky / AP
Earlier this week, Brown announced that Oregon will expand COVID-19 vaccination efforts to include people aged 65 and over, as well as teachers.
And in the Portland area, four major health systems have pledged to bring together staff and doses of vaccine to start a major inoculation effort at the Oregon City Convention Center, starting later this month.
These plans were based, in part, on the expectation that Oregon would receive additional doses from the federal government starting January 23.
According to an Oregonlive / The Oregonian report on Thursday, the state still has 200,000 unused doses on hand, but officials have struggled to track the distribution of the vaccine.
According to a report on Friday morning in The Washington Post, the Trump administration stopped stocking up on the vaccine late last year and started sending doses directly off the assembly line. Government officials said they were confident that pharmaceutical manufacturers could meet demand now that they had reached a consistent pace of production, The Washington Post reported.
President-elect Joe Biden said he plans to release stored vaccines to speed up inoculation efforts after his inauguration.
It was unclear on Friday morning how Brown and Biden’s vaccine strategies will be affected by the lack of a federal dose reserve.
This story is developing. Stay tuned for updates.