Originally, each bottle of Pfizer’s Covid-19 vaccine was designed to contain five doses, but some pharmacists reported that they could draw six doses using certain syringes.
As a result, the FDA has approved an updated label that states: “Low dead volume syringes and / or needles can be used to extract six doses from a single bottle. If standard syringes and needles are used, there may not be enough volume to extract one sixth dose of a single bottle. “
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said that this increase in doses per bottle “provides an additional 20% capacity”. The New York Times first reported on Pfizer’s plans to base its commitment to the vaccine in doses rather than vials.
However, CNN chief medical correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta said on Friday that the ability to obtain the sixth dose with these syringes does not exist everywhere.
“Many places have them,” Gupta told CNN’s John Berman, “but not all places.”
These changes highlight the drive to vaccinate as many people as possible in the midst of an inconsistent supply chain.
As inoculation efforts increase, the pandemic remains unshakable. Johns Hopkins University reported more than 186,000 new cases and 3,655 new deaths on Friday. At least 414,004 people died in the USA due to Covid-19.
‘This shouldn’t be Hunger Games’
The lack of information and financial support has left states struggling to manage a slow rollout of the Covid-19 vaccine, according to Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota.
“I’m able to get a vaccine in Minnesota and I can’t find one,” Osterholm, former President Joe Biden’s coronavirus advisor, told CNN journalist Erin Burnett on Friday. “I want to share that frustration loud and clear.”
Utah Governor Spencer Cox told CNN’s Chris Cuomo that the state is well positioned for distribution, but that the quantity of vaccines has been stored in private pharmacies across the country.
“Long-term care institutions in Utah, they have too much vaccine. We estimate that they have 15 to 16,000 extra doses that they don’t need and can’t use right now. So we’re taking it back and we’re giving it to our local health departments and it’s going to go away next week, ”said Cox.
Frustrations with vaccine distribution and concerns about supply echoed across the country.
Louisiana does not have a mass vaccination site set up because it does not have enough vaccine to run a site, Governor John Bel Edwards said on Friday.
New York State administered 97% of its first allocated doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, said Governor Andrew Cuomo on Friday, and is expected to run out soon.
Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer that she receives daily calls from people “desperately looking for the vaccine”, adding “I’m just not seeing an abundance of vaccine.”
Cox, from Utah, said competition between states at the start of the pandemic, when the federal government forced states to steal supplies like personal protective equipment, should be avoided in the case of vaccines.
“This shouldn’t be Hunger Games, as it was with PPE, right. That was ridiculous and we all had to play that game, ”he said. “We are all in this together. The governors are in this together. We just need information from the federal government and the manufacturers,” said Cox.
New administration, new realities
Biden’s coronavirus advisers have high hopes that the scarcity can be avoided, said Dr. Vivek Murthy, who was appointed Surgeon General, on Friday in a webcast for mayors.
Talks with companies “gave us more confidence that there is more supply coming and that it will continue to increase steadily in the coming months,” added Murthy.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said on Friday that he expects positive news about a Johnson & Johnson single-dose coronavirus vaccine in the coming weeks.
“I don’t want to go ahead of them, but I have to say that I would be surprised if it were more than two weeks from now that the data would be analyzed and decisions would be made,” said Fauci on MSNBC.
At least 195 cases of the variant have been identified in 22 U.S. states, according to the CDC.
“It didn’t become dominant,” said Fauci. “It could be. That’s the reason why you have to watch carefully as we go from January to February, and really get a good look.”
Fauci agreed with the health recommendations. “This is the kind of thing that prevents outbreaks, regardless … of the type of virus.”
CNN’s Maggie Fox, Madeline Holcombe, Lauren Mascarenhas, Raja Razek, Chuck Johnston, Hollie Silverman, Amanda Watts, Nick Neville, Andrea Diaz, Naomi Thomas, Michael Nedelman and Alta Spells contributed to this report.