Missouri is getting fewer doses of COVID-19 vaccine next week than expected. The second shipment was supposed to include enough doses to vaccinate about 64,000 health care workers. During a Capitol briefing in Jefferson City, state Health and Senior Services Department Director Randall Williams says the federal government is giving Missouri about 25% to 30% fewer doses in its next shipment.
Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) Director Dr. Randall Williams briefs Capitol reporters on July 14, 2020 in Jefferson City (photo courtesy of the governor’s Flickr page)
“This is not unanticipated that when you’re dealing with hundreds of thousands of vaccine – and by February we may well have two more according to Dr. Slaoui – there are going to be different developments,” says Dr. Williams.
If you do the math, that is about 16,000 to 19,000 fewer vials of vaccine headed to the Show-Me State during the week of Christmas.
“We just learned a very short time ago that we’re going to be receiving a little bit less of our second dose of the Pfizer vaccine. I’ve got a call into Gen. Perna to figure out why that it. It’s not a drastic amount but it’s a little bit smaller,” says Williams.
General Gustave Perna heads Operation Warp Speed, a national effort to fast track the rollout of COVID-19 vaccine.
Last week, The New York Times reported Pfizer could not promise to get the U.S. more than the initial doses agreed to after the Trump administration failed to reach a deal offered by the drug maker over the summer for extra doses.
The Washington Post reports Pfizer and the Trump administration are working a deal to help make millions of doses for the country next year.
Earlier this week, Missouri received its first shipment of 51,000 doses. According to Gov. Mike Parson’s office, nearly 1,000 Missouri health care workers have already received their first round of the COVID-19 vaccination. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two shots over about a three-week period.
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