[ad_1]
Aurich Lawson / Getty Images
While we await news of the authorization of a second vaccine for use in the United States, there have been technical problems in the distribution of the first one through the federal government’s “Operation Warp Speed”. This week, the US saw the first use of the vaccine developed by a Pfizer / BioNTech collaboration. But immediately afterward, many states began saying that shipment orders were declining in the weeks that followed. After some in the federal government indicated that the problem could be in production, Pfizer issued a statement indicating that it had doses in its warehouse ready to ship, but did not indicate where to send them.
All in all, it’s about what you would expect in the first weeks of a massive company like this.
Denial state
One of the first states to report problems was Illinois, where its governor, JB Pritzker, said he had indications that it would only receive half of the expected doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine next week. Since then, more than a dozen states have indicated that they will receive fewer doses than planned in the second week (this article seems to have a fairly comprehensive list).
Aside from the obvious problem that fewer people are vaccinated, this creates problems for states that are working by vaccinating a set of populations using risk-based priorities. For example, the availability of doses to healthcare workers will determine when vaccines can be transferred to nursing home populations; planning when to change the target population will be critical to rapid and effective change. Without knowing when enough vaccines will be available, these transitions are much more difficult to manage.
When it comes to why orders are removed, we hear multiple excuses. At a press conference on the distribution effort, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar pointed the finger at Pfizer, which makes the vaccine in the United States. “We have been recently informed, finally, of various challenges that they could have in their manufacture, and we will ensure that, by whatever means, we provide them with all the support to ensure that they can produce for the American people,” Azar. said.
But Azar’s is not the only story the government gives. The Washington Post was told that the problem was a matter of when the weekly doses were determined. That was originally planned for Friday, when the full week’s production was completed; it has since been switched to Tuesday, when fewer doses would be completed. That would necessarily lower the availability figures given to states.
Unfortunately, none of these appear to be entirely true. In response to this news, Pfizer has issued a statement saying that it has no production problems. “This week, we successfully shipped the 2.9 million doses that the United States government asked us to send to the locations specified by them,” the statement read. “We have millions more doses in our warehouse but, as of now, we have not received shipping instructions for additional doses.”
Given that BioNTech joined Pfizer in part due to the latter’s manufacturing capabilities and due to clear credibility issues with the Trump administration on the COVID-19 issue, Pfizer’s statement is likely closer to the truth. .
It’s not all bad news
Warp Speed is a large and complex project in which various vaccine manufacturers will eventually send doses to the federal government, which will then distribute them to the states, each of which has to plan to get them to populations according to different priorities. No wonder there are some growing pains. Hopefully they can be fixed as long as there is a single vaccine supplier, which limits the complexity a bit.
But sole supplier status may change as soon as today, based on a decision by an FDA advisory board that a Moderna vaccine is effective. Based on preliminary figures, Moderna expects it to supply substantially more vaccines as soon as it receives a formal Emergency Use Authorization from the FDA, which will complicate distribution but alleviate supply bottlenecks.
In the longer term, there are signs of other opportunities to increase the supply of vaccines. Having turned down an offer from Pfizer to buy additional doses of the vaccine earlier this year, the federal government may be close to a deal to buy more. Pfizer had worked with suppliers of its raw materials to determine how much vaccine it could produce; When the US turned it down, the company simply found other countries to sell doses to. Now, it indicates that if the US government can guarantee a better supply of the ingredients of its vaccines, it will sell the additional doses to the country.
Right now, the US has only committed to purchasing enough vaccines to cover half its population by mid-2021, making additional doses essential. Last week, the government managed to get a commitment from Moderna for another 100 million doses of its vaccine. Major pharmacy chains expect widespread availability this spring, indicating confidence that additional supplies will be ordered.
A small help for current supply limitations that has become apparent this week is that the normal “overfill” found in vaccine vials is sometimes sufficient to allow an additional dose to be drawn from a five-dose vial of Pfizer vaccine. While it won’t handle general supply problems, it will certainly help individual facilities protect more staff in the early days of the vaccination program.
