VIRGINIA, USA — Across the Commonwealth, the effort to vaccinate people against Covid-19 is well underway, but it’s not happening as quickly as health officials at the Virginia Department of Health had initially anticipated.
On Wednesday, Christ Gray, VDH’s Director of Immunization said they’ve had to rearrange their vaccine administration plans after receiving fewer doses than expected.
“We had to scale down across, so we have less doses to give to healthcare personnel,” said Gray.
In early December, the federal task force 'Operation Warp Speed’ anticipated giving VA 480,000 doses of the Covid vaccine by the end of December, but now the state is only getting about 370,000 doses. It’s a decline of nearly 100,000 doses by the end of December.
“Our understanding is that the calculations… they determined their number off of the wrong set of vaccines. They used the total number being manufactured, not necessarily the number that had gone through the data quality process and are ready to be shipped. They were using the wrong numbers to calculate that,” said Gray.
“The numbers that they gave us were always planning numbers, we just were not expecting the actual allocated number to be so much lower than the planning number.”
For the first time on Wednesday, Operation Warp Speed's Moncef Slaoui and Gen. Gus Perna said their vaccination numbers aren’t as high as they'd initially aimed for, but they anticipate the numbers to increase in the coming weeks.
Back in early Dec., Trump administration officials said they planned to have 20 million doses of the vaccine distributed by the end of the year. Data from the Centers for Disease Control indicated just over 11.4 million doses have been distributed and only 2.1 million people have received the first dose.
Wednesday, officials with Operation Warp Speed said 14 million doses have been shipped to states and another six million would arrive next week.
Gray said VDH is facing its own set of logistical challenges. Currently, VDH is experiencing a lag in reporting the total number of people who have been vaccinated. As of Dec. 30, VDH’s website said 54,295 people across VA have received the vaccine, but Gray believes the actual number of people vaccinated is higher.
Then there’s the logistical challenge of storing the Pfizer vaccine in extremely cold temperatures, which has created a difficult stage for planning.
It’s a complicated effort infectious disease EVMS infectious disease expert Dr. Edward Oldfield hasn’t witnessed in his 40-year career.
“We have not given mass vaccinations on a scale like this since the flu pandemic,” said Oldfield. “What we’re experiencing is problems not with distributing at the federal level, not with the availability of the vaccine from Moderna and Pfizer, but how to set up our local vaccine distribution and actually putting it into people’s arms.”
Oldfield said despite those challenges, he believes VDH is handling the massive vaccination effort well.
Gray said Virginia will get another batch of doses at the end of this week.
“We are pleased with our progress but have a long way to go. Over time we will get more efficient,” said Gray.
Gray declined to comment on whether or not she’s pleased with Operation Warp Speed’s handling of the vaccine distribution.
She said they’re working together closely and are in communication every day.
