Only 24 Million Priority Vaccination Recipients Including Medical Sector, Supply at 20 Million Doses
State Governments Like California, Texas, New York Appeal for Vaccine Shortage
[Asia Economy International Department Reporter] The United States is scheduled to begin COVID-19 vaccinations this month, but initial supply volumes are expected to be woefully insufficient.
The U.S. plans to vaccinate healthcare workers such as doctors and nurses, as well as nursing home patients where deaths are rapidly occurring, but CNN reported on the 4th (local time) that supply is expected to fall far short compared to vaccine demand.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has selected a total of 24 million healthcare workers and nursing home patients as the first vaccination targets.
However, the vaccine doses that U.S. health authorities plan to receive from pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna amount to 40 million doses, enough for 20 million people (based on two doses per person).
Moreover, the 20 million vaccinations are only the target set by U.S. health authorities, and it is uncertain whether the vaccine supply will proceed smoothly. Pfizer predicted that its vaccine supply would only reach 6.4 million doses by mid-month.
CNN compared the initial vaccine demand prepared by each state government with the actual vaccine doses to be delivered and diagnosed that an initial vaccine shortage will occur nationwide across the United States.
California plans to administer the first vaccine dose to 2.4 million healthcare workers, but Pfizer’s initial vaccine supply is only 327,000 doses.
Governor Gavin Newsom recently explained at a press conference that due to the shortage of vaccine doses, it is necessary to readjust the priority order for vaccination even among healthcare workers.
Alabama initially set a goal to receive 112,000 vaccine doses from Pfizer, but the actual secured amount is expected to be only 40,950 doses.
Compared to Alabama’s priority vaccination targets of 300,000 healthcare workers and 22,000 nursing facility patients, this amount is far from sufficient.
In New York, 215,000 nursing home patients and staff were selected as the highest priority vaccination targets, but the vaccine doses available by the 15th amount to only 170,000 doses.
Texas, with a total of 1.32 million confirmed cases, is also expected to face an inevitable initial vaccine shortage. The state health authorities estimated 1.6 million healthcare workers for the first vaccination, but the actual doses will fall short of half, at 700,000 people (1.4 million vaccine doses).
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