US Boosting Vaccine Deliveries         01/27 06:09

   

   (AP) -- Answering growing frustration over vaccine shortages, President Joe 
Biden announced that the U.S. is ramping up deliveries to hard-pressed states 
over the next three weeks and expects to provide enough doses to vaccinate 300 
million Americans by the end of the summer or early fall.

   Biden, calling the push a "wartime effort," said Tuesday the administration 
was working to buy an additional 100 million doses of each of the two approved 
coronavirus vaccines. He acknowledged that states in recent weeks have been 
left guessing how much vaccine they will have from one week to the next.

   Shortages have been so severe that some vaccination sites around the U.S. 
had to cancel tens of thousands of appointments with people seeking their first 
shot.

   "This is unacceptable," Biden said. "Lives are at stake."

   He promised a roughly 16% boost in deliveries to states over the next three 
weeks.

   The administration said it plans to buy another 100 million doses each from 
drugmakers Pfizer and Moderna to ensure it has enough vaccine for the long 
term. Even more vaccine could be available if federal scientists approve a 
single-dose shot from Johnson & Johnson, which is expected to seek emergency 
authorization in the coming weeks.

   The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that the government 
plans to make about 10.1 million first and second doses available next week, up 
from this week's allotment of 8.6 million. The figures represent doses of both 
the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. It was not immediately clear how long the 
surge of doses could be sustained.

   Governors and top health officials have been increasingly raising the alarm 
about inadequate supplies and the need for earlier and more reliable estimates 
of how much vaccine is on the way so that they can plan.

   Biden's team held its first virus-related call with the nation's governors 
on Tuesday and pledged to provide states with firm vaccine allocations three 
weeks ahead of delivery.

   Biden's announcement came a day after he grew more bullish about exceeding 
his vaccine pledge to deliver 100 million injections in his first 100 days in 
office, suggesting that a rate of 1.5 million doses per day could soon be 
achieved.

   The administration has also promised more openness and said it will hold 
news briefings three times a week, beginning Wednesday, about the outbreak that 
has killed more than 425,000 people in the United States.

   "We appreciate the administration stating that it will provide states with 
slightly higher allocations for the next few weeks, but we are going to need 
much more supply," said Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican.

   The setup inherited from the Trump administration has been marked by 
miscommunication and unexplained bottlenecks, with shortages reported in some 
places even as vaccine doses remain on the shelf.

   Officials in West Virginia, which has had one of the best rates of 
administering vaccine, said they have fewer than 11,000 first doses on hand 
even after this week's shipment.

   "I'm screaming my head off" for more, Republican Gov. Jim Justice said.

   California, which has faced criticism over a slow vaccine rollout, announced 
Tuesday that it is centralizing its hodgepodge of county systems and 
streamlining appointment sign-up, notification and eligibility. Residents have 
been baffled by the varying rules in different counties.

   And in Colorado, Democratic Gov. Jared Polis said that the limited supply of 
vaccine from the federal government is prompting the state to repurpose second 
doses as first doses, though he expects that people scheduled for their second 
shot will still be able to keep their appointments.

   The weekly allocation cycle for first doses begins on Monday nights, when 
federal officials review data on vaccine availability from manufacturers to 
determine how much each state can have. Allocations are based on each 
jurisdiction's population of people 18 and older.

   States are notified on Tuesdays of their allocations through a computer 
network called Tiberius and other channels, after which they can specify where 
they want doses shipped. Deliveries start the following Monday.

   A similar but separate process for ordering second doses, which must be 
given three to four weeks after the first, begins each week on Sunday night.

   As of Tuesday afternoon, the CDC reported that just over half of the 44 
million doses distributed to states have been put in people's arms. That is 
well short of the hundreds of millions of doses that experts say will need to 
be administered to achieve herd immunity and conquer the outbreak.

   The U.S. ranks fifth in the world in the number of doses administered 
relative to the country's population, behind No. 1 Israel, United Arab 
Emirates, Britain and Bahrain, according to the University of Oxford.

   The reason more of the available shots in the U.S. haven't been dispensed 
isn't entirely clear. But many vaccination sites are apparently holding large 
quantities of vaccine in reserve to make sure people who have already gotten 
their first shot receive the required second one on schedule.

   Also, some state officials have complained of a lag between when they report 
their vaccination numbers to the government and when the figures are posted on 
the CDC website.

   In the New Orleans area, Ochsner Health said Monday that inadequate supply 
forced the cancellation last week of 21,400 first-dose appointments but that 
second-dose appointments aren't affected.

   In North Carolina, Greensboro-based Cone Health announced it is canceling 
first-dose appointments for 10,000 people and moving them to a waiting list 
because of supply problems.

   Jesse Williams, 81, of Reidsville, North Carolina, said his appointment 
Thursday with Cone Health was scratched, and he is waiting to hear when it 
might be rescheduled. The former volunteer firefighter had hoped the vaccine 
would enable him to resume attending church, playing golf and seeing friends.

   "It's just a frustration that we were expecting to be having our shots and 
being a little more resilient to COVID-19," he said.

   The vaccine rollout across the 27-nation European Union has also run into 
roadblocks and has likewise been criticized as too slow. Pfizer is delaying 
deliveries while it upgrades its plant in Belgium to increase capacity. And 
AstraZeneca disclosed that its initial shipment will be smaller than expected.

   The EU, with 450 million citizens, is demanding that the pharmaceutical 
companies meet their commitments on schedule.