Some confusion as the vaccine rolls out…Governors say the CDC is cutting vaccine allocations
At least four state governors were told by the federal government to expect fewer coronavirus vaccine doses next week than had been originally planned.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) said in a tweet that he was told his state’s allocation of the new vaccine, produced by Pfizer and the German pharmaceutical company BioNTech, would be slashed by 40 percent.
“This is disruptive and frustrating. We need accurate, predictable numbers to plan and ensure on-the-ground success,” Inslee wrote on Twitter.
However, a spokeswoman at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) denied that any allocation plans had changed.
“Reports that jurisdictions’ allocations are being reduced are incorrect. As was done with the initial shipments of Pfizer vaccine, jurisdictions will receive vaccine at different sites over several days. This eases the burden on the jurisdictions and spreads the workload across multiple days,” the spokeswoman said.
The news also comes after Pfizer put out a statement earlier on Thursday saying that there has been no production issues and that the company had already delivered 2.9 million doses for the first wave.
“We have millions more doses sitting in our warehouse but, as of now, we have not received any shipment instructions for additional doses,” the drugmaker said.