Feds Bungling Vaccine Distribution?

Governor Tony Evers and Wisconsin’s top health officials are calling on the federal government to deliver more COVID-19 vaccines to the state after being informed Wisconsin will receive fewer doses than originally promised. Meanwhile, one of the vaccine manufacturers says it has additional vaccine doses, but needs instruction on where to send them.

Evers released a statement Friday explaining that the federal government had informed them that the state would now only receive 35,100 doses of vaccine in an initial shipment when it was originally promised 49,725.

“This is unacceptable,” Evers said. “Wisconsin citizens deserve the vaccine the federal government promised.”

The federal government is not adequately providing information to the state about vaccine distribution and allocation, according to Evers.

This week Alex Azar, US Secretary of Health and Human Services, said that supply chain issues are disrupting Pfizer’s ability to produce millions of vaccines, which is complicating the government’s negotiations over additional vaccine purchases.

However, Pfizer released a statement Friday saying they were not having any issues with vaccine production and that no shipments have been put on hold or delayed.

“This week, we successfully shipped all 2.9 million doses that we were asked to ship by the U.S. Government to the locations specified by them,” the company said. “We have millions more doses sitting in our warehouse but, as of now, we have not received any shipment instructions for additional doses.”

The company even indicated that Azar was lying, saying it shares information on a weekly basis with DHHS and Operation Warp Speed concerning every aspect of its production and distribution capacity.

“We remain confident in our ability to deliver up to 50 million doses globally this year and up to 1.3 billion next year,” the company said. “We look forward to continuing to work with the US Government to deliver our vaccine to the American people.”

In Wisconsin, hospitals and clinics are “anxiously awaiting these doses to help protect their staff that are providing care to Wisconsin residents,” said the statement from the Governor. The Department of Health Services has been coordinating with Wisconsin Emergency Management and a small cadre of Wisconsin National Guard troops to distribute the vaccine across the state.

“Our healthcare workers and long-term care residents need this vaccine that is ready and available,” Evers said. “We call on the federal government to send us more vaccine without delay.”