NEW YORK (AP) – The push to inoculate Americans with coronavirus is blocking: several states report they are running out of vaccine and tens of thousands of people who got appointments for the first dose see them canceled. lat.
Karen Stachowiak, a first-grade teacher in the Buffalo area, spent nearly five hours on the customer service line and website to make an appointment for Wednesday, but was only told she was canceled. The Erie County Health Department said it scratched vaccines on more than 8,000 people in recent days due to insufficient supply.
“It’s stressful because I was so close. And my other friends who are teachers, were able to book appointments for last Saturday, ”said Stachowiak. “There are so many people who get into it, and it’s like, ‘No, I have to wait.’
The reason for the apparent mismatch between supply and demand in the US was unclear, but last week the Department of Health and Human Services suggested that states had unrealistic expectations about the vaccine that was on the way.
In any case, new shipments come out every week, and both the government and drug manufacturers have said there are large quantities in the pipeline.
The shortage is occurring as states drastically increase their vaccination actions, according to the federal government leadership, to reach people 65 and older, along with other people. More than 400,000 deaths in the United States have been blamed on the virus.
President Joe Biden, who was inaugurated Wednesday, immediately came under pressure to sort things out. He has made it clear that his administration will take more strength to attack the crisis and promised to manage 100 million shots in its first 100 days.
Less than half of the 36 million doses distributed in states by the federal government have been administered to date, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Public health officials have said the gap could reflect delays in record keeping, as well as disarray and other failures at various levels of government in conducting gunfire.
In a statement, HHS said jurisdictions actually received a 5% increase in vaccine allocations this week from what they got in the last two weeks.
Countries all over Europe also have problems getting enough doses to provide protection against a virus that now appears in new, more contagious variants around the world.
Pfizer said last week that it would temporarily reduce deliveries to Europe and Canada while improving the capacity of its plant in Belgium, which supplies all shots delivered outside the United States. Pfizer’s main vaccine manufacturing site for the US is located in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
In the United States, some states have suggested they could run out on Thursday and are unclear when new doses will arrive.
New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday the city had to cancel 23,000 appointments for people waiting for the first dose this week. The New York City Police Department suspended vaccinations against its first officers.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said he expects the state to run out of vaccine supplies in two to three days for people seeking their first dose.
“What’s clear now is that we’ll go from week to week and you’ll see a steady pattern basically finishing, waiting for next week’s assignment and starting again,” he said. He urged health institutions not to schedule appointments to dispense the vaccine that have not yet been assigned.
In Florida, local media reported a similar problem in the Miami area, where the Baptist health care system canceled appointments for the first doses.
“I could have sprayed the top of my head with steam,” Charlotte Reeve, 76, told The Miami Herald. “I am also a fairly recent widow. For me, having to be locked up at home alone is devastating to me. … I feel like my knees have just been cut off, again. “
The San Francisco Department of Health said it will likely run out of vaccines Thursday, in part because the state withdrew from administering a batch of Moderna shots after several health workers suffered what it could. having been a bad reaction. The county health department received 12,000 doses last week, but less than 2,000 this week.
In a statement, Moderna said it is on track to deliver 100 million doses by the end of the first quarter of the year and 200 million by the end of the second quarter.
Pfizer, the maker of the other vaccine used in the United States, said it duly complied with government orders over the past two weeks. He said he works 24 hours a day to produce millions more doses every day and has no plans to meet his commitment to deliver 200 million by the end of July.
West Virginia, which has run one of the fastest vaccination initiatives in the country, said it did not receive an expected dose increase this week. With 99.6% of the first hand doses already administered, officials are demanding more.
“Here we are without vaccines,” Republican Gov. Jim Justice said, worrying that other states have unused doses. “We have them all in people’s arms and we’ve done exactly what we should have done. … I think performance should be rewarded.”
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine has advocated for the new Biden administration to get more doses as the state struggles with high hospitalizations and a death toll that has surpassed 10,000.
“We don’t lack infrastructure,” DeWine said in a letter. “We’re missing the vaccine.”
Hawaii leaders complained that the state received 59,000 doses last week, but only expects about 32,000.
In New York State, Barbara Carr, a 72-year-old retiree in Buffalo, was baffled when the vaccination appointment was canceled for Thursday. But he quickly got another appointment at a pharmacy and received his first dose.
She is now worried about her two children, who are teachers. Her appointments were canceled.
“They haven’t had any luck with rescheduling, or phone calls, or any communication other than ‘You’re canceled,'” Carr said. “Poor teachers. … I can stay home so I can hide. of the virus.
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Hill reported from Albany, New York.