COVID-19 Vaccines: States To Receive Lesser Doses Due To Miscommunication

(Photo : Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
FORT LAUDERDALE, FLORIDA - DECEMBER 17: Lucy Corso, RN, Intensive Care Unit, Broward Health Medical Center, receives a Pfizer-BioNtech COVID-19 vaccine from Kristina Castro, Nurse Practitioner at Broward Health Medical Center on December 17, 2020 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Broward Health Medical Center began the vaccination of frontline healthcare workers joining with hospital systems around the country as the COVID-19 vaccine is rolled out.

States were left floundering when they found out that they will be getting 20- to 40 percent lesser COVID-19 vaccines next week than what they were initially told last December 9. The problem was finally traced to the miscommunication of the wrong estimates.

The lesser number of COVID-19 vaccines has caused another tension between the federal government and Pfizer over the supply of doses.

The problem was finally traced to the wrong estimates that were communicated to the states. It was found out that the estimates given to the states were based on the vaccine doses produced and not on doses that have already passed quality control and approved for release as reported by USA Today.

It had a huge ripple effect, according to Association of Immunization Managers Executive Director Claire Hannan as the states were informed of this discrepancy only last Wednesday.

"The planning piece is critical. We cannot roll this vaccine out on the fly," said Hannan.

The problem was traced on Friday night after Washington Gov. Jay Inslee talked with Operation Warp Speed (OWS) Chief Operating Officer, Gen. Gustave Perna.

Inslee had tweeted that the change in the number of COVID-19 vaccines was due to the discrepancy. He clarified though that the problem does not seem to be a long-term challenge to the production of the vaccine seen to be the start of ending the pandemic.

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In a report on The New York Times, several state officials were unprepared when they were informed that the shipment for next week will contain lesser doses of COVID-19 vaccines than that of last week.

Health officials in Oregon said that instead of the 40,950 doses of the COVID-19 vaccines, they will only be getting 25,350 doses for the next week. It is the same case in Iowa wherein the public health department stated that they will not be receiving the initial doses that they were told they will be getting. They added that they will only be getting 30 percent less than that of last week.

Perna had issued an apology to the governors and owned up to the mistake saying it was entirely his fault in a news conference held Saturday morning.

The OWS head explained that he had not considered the time needed for the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to pass its quality control process on completed COVID-19 vaccines. He said that before Pfizer can ship a batch of doses, each batch must have a certificate of analysis that the FDA must received 48 hours prior to shipment.

"At the end of the day, I accept responsibility for the miscommunication," Perna said.

The discrepancy impacted the plans that states and their respective health departments and hospital systems for the administration of the COVID-19 vaccines, according to Bloomberg.