Trump administration officials leading Operation Warp Speed recognized that the launch of the coronavirus vaccine was slower than expected and that it was “unlikely” to reach its goal of 20 million vaccinations by the end of the month.
The process has been “slower than we thought it would be,” said Dr. Moncef Slaoui, who is leading the government’s efforts to accelerate vaccine production and distribution, during a news conference last week, adding that the target 20 million two-dose vaccinations are “unlikely to be met”.
The Trump administration has repeatedly said it intended to vaccinate 20 million Americans by the end of the year. About 2 million people have been vaccinated by December 28, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, although government officials say there is a data delay.
“By the end of December, we expect to have around 40 million doses of [Pfizer and Moderna] vaccines available for distribution, “said Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar last month.” Enough to vaccinate 20 million of our most vulnerable Americans. “
Slaoui told reporters earlier this month that the Trump administration’s efforts to boost vaccine production “allow us to be sure that we will be able to distribute enough vaccine to immunize 20 million people in the United States in December, that is, 40 million of doses “.
Slaoui admitted last week that the process of obtaining “gun injections” has been slower than expected and “the commitment we can make is to make vaccine doses available”.
But General Gustave Perna, chief of operations for Operation Warp Speed, said during a news conference last week that only half of the promised doses would be distributed to states in January.
“We have allocated 15.5 million doses of vaccine and we are on track to allocate another 4.5 to 5 million next week, which will lead us to 20 million doses of vaccine allocated to America before the end of the year,” he said. “We are going to finish these deliveries in the first week of January.”
Perna, in charge of overseeing the logistics of launching the vaccine, said the government had done a “good job so far” in distributing the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, but admitted there were already problems.
“We tried to deliver a handful of packages that were not destined for the right place, but we captured them before they were left and redirected them to the right place,” he said. “And we received some … shipments that didn’t come out on time.”
Perna said earlier that there were also temperature problems with thousands of doses of the Pfizer vaccine, which should be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius.
State officials across the country also complained that vaccine allocations were cut sharply earlier this month. Pfizer said it had millions of doses stored in deposits, waiting for delivery instructions.
Perna told reporters that he takes “personal responsibility for the lack of communication” with state governments.
“There is a delay between what is available and what can be released,” he said, “because we are talking about hundreds, thousands and millions of doses that we want to make sure are the right ones.”
“We all made the mistake or mistake of assuming that the vaccine that was actually produced and released is now available for shipment, when, in fact, there is a two-day gap between when we generate a lot of data that shows this. it’s really safe and right and when we can send it, “Slaoui later told CNN.
“The FDA has to receive certain documentation,” he added. “And this is where this delay period resulted in differences between what was in the plan and what was actually done. I think we solved that.”
Stephen Hanh, head of the Food and Drug Administration, said that Pfizer and Moderna they are required to “send certificates of analysis for each batch at least 48 hours before the vaccine is distributed”, but they “can distribute without waiting for FDA approval.”
State officials also warned that Trump’s delay in the coronavirus relief bill, which he finally signed on Sunday, also prevented billions in funds for vaccine distribution from being allocated.
“Every minute of delay impacts how many people can get the vaccine and when,” Adriane Casalotti, of the National Association of County and City Health Officials, told CNBC.
Pfizer also said the Trump administration declined the chance to buy 100 million additional doses for next spring, although the company later said it had reached an agreement that would require the administration to invoke the Defense Production Act to increase the company’s production capacity after months of resistance from the White House. The use of the Defense Production Act, a wartime law that allows the president to require companies to assist in the production needed for national security, will allow Pfizer to secure enough raw material to produce up to 100 million more doses. until July, the company said. Pfizer had already cut its estimated production by the end of the year in half due to a shortage of raw materials.
President-elect Joe Biden will invoke the Defense Production Act to “ensure that personal protective equipment, testing capacity and raw materials for vaccines are produced in adequate quantities”, Dr. Celine Gounder, member of the advisory board of Biden’s coronavirus, he told CNBC on Monday.
Senator Chris Murphy, D-Conn., Who sits on the Senate committee that oversees public health, said he and other Democrats had tried “to pressure the Trump administration to fully invoke the DPA” for nine months.
“They refused, probably to protect the profits of the private industry,” he tweeted. “There are so many fruits at hand like this to make our COVID response better.”