A bottle of Modern Vaccine Inc. Covid-19.
Photographer: Eduardo Munoz / Reuters / Bloomberg
Photographer: Eduardo Munoz / Reuters / Bloomberg
At least three submissions of The Covid-19 vaccine from Moderna Inc. arrived in Texas last week with signs that the shots had moved away from the required temperature, prompting a delay elsewhere, according to the state hospital association.
Some Modern vaccine shipments scheduled for delivery last week, before the Christmas break, were held back by temperature issues, said Carrie Kroll, vice president of defense, quality and public health for the Texas Hospital Association. It was not clear how many doses were affected in general.
Affected shipments were replaced by the federal government and others were detained by U.S. officials because of a potential problem with their temperature sensors, Kroll said. The Moderna vaccine must be kept frozen for dispatch and storage.
Temperature problems underscore how the United States faces obstacles in its effort to vaccinate 20 million Americans by the end of the year, a goal that appears to be out of reach. As of Monday, only 2.13 million people had been shot, although 11.45 million doses of vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer Inc. have been distributed. and BioNTech SE.
Read more: US vaccinations at 200,000 a day are a long way from “warp speed”
A spokesman for Moderna referred questions to the federal government and McKesson Corp., which distributes Modern vaccines.
Spokesmen for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and McKesson said they were studying the issue. Spokesmen for Operation Warp Speed, the federal vaccine program, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.
Texas State Department of Health Services officials confirmed that doses had been delayed, but did not directly answer questions about temperature issues.
“Some of the Week 2 shipments were delayed and were not received by providers until Monday and Tuesday of this week,” Lara Anton, a spokeswoman for the Texas State Department of Health Services, said in an email. . The delay contributed to the emergence that Texas has administered a relatively small portion of the vaccine doses allocated to the state.
Kroll, the hospital association official, said hospitals only received doses expected a week ago, but state vaccine allocation figures do not reflect the delay.
Other information issues may make it appear that Texas medical providers handle fewer shots than they actually did, he said. Some hospital systems have had problems with the data system the state uses to track vaccinations, he said. The catches they manage are not properly recorded in the central system and discrepancies must be resolved on a case-by-case basis.
“There seems to be a vaccine sitting on the shelf when it’s actually been administered,” Kroll said.
– With the assistance of Joe Carroll