Health officials trying to find an answer are baffled by reports that millions of available doses are not being used.
Health centers across the U.S. have had to begin canceling thousands of appointments to supply the covid-19 vaccine in the face of dose shortages, prompting despair and unanswered questions from health officials.
The situation is especially dire in Texas, which has an average of about 20,000 new cases a day, raising concerns about whether officials will be able to slow the spread when they can’t get the vaccines they desperately need to do so, indicates this Saturday The New York Times.
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Houston, the fourth largest city in the country, is struggling with a similar problem when hospitals treating some of its poorest residents run out of vaccine, leading some public health experts to wonder why doses are not available to vulnerable communities, the newspaper also notes.
He also points out that the sense of chaos in distribution, not just in Texas but in a variety of states, is exposing how local officials are struggling to fill the gap left by the lack, until this week that possess as President Joe Biden, a comprehensive response at the federal level.
Health officials trying to find an answer are baffled by reports that millions of available doses are not being used.
As of Friday morning, nearly 39.9 million doses of Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines had been distributed to state and local governments, but only about 19.1 million doses had been administered to patients, according to the Centers. for Disease Control and Prevention, the Times also highlights.
Recall that Pfizer and Moderna agreed to provide this country with 100 million doses of vaccines, and companies are competing to manufacture vaccines, releasing together between 12 million and 18 million doses per week.
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The newspaper notes similar appointment cancellation situations in other states including Hawaii, where a Maui hospital canceled 5,000 first-dose appointments and put another 15,000 applications on hold.
The New York newspaper points out that it seems that problems with the distribution of doses already available are responsible for much of the acute shortage of vaccines affecting some parts of the country, and available to people over 65 years of age.
“I think this is really a continuation of the consequences of the lack of a coordinated federal response. Basically, cities and counties were left alone to deal with this pandemic,” Dr. Grant Colfax told the newspaper. head of the San Francisco Department of Public Health.