Amid criticism from state lawmakers over the slow introduction of COVID-19 vaccines in Alabama, the state announced Wednesday that the unused vaccine doses from clinics or pharmacies that do not give it fast enough will begin to “remove” and the will send limited vaccine supply elsewhere.
The Alabama Department of Public Health issued a news release on Wednesday afternoon to address “misunderstandings” about the vaccination efforts in the state and announce that the new policy to “remove” unused vaccine doses from hospitals, pharmacies or other providers and to send places that can use it faster.
“In response to concerns that some providers are not administering the vaccines in a timely manner, ADPH will begin removing the vaccine supply from suppliers who are not administering the vaccine in a timely manner,” the department said. “Unused vaccine will be diverted to other suppliers who will administer the vaccine faster.
“ADPH examines all providers in the state to ensure that all doses administered have been properly reported to ADPH, and to determine if there is any vaccine available that needs to be redistributed elsewhere.”
Alabama has consistently finished with or near the bottom of statistics on the distribution of vaccines kept by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, and remains the last place among states in the percentage of the population vaccinated as of January 20th. The ADPH data dashboard shows more doses given than the federal dashboard, and ADPH said it communicates continuously with the CDC to ensure that all doses given in Alabama are counted.
But the state is under pressure to spread the vaccine faster. In the waning days of the Trump administration, the CDC announced a policy to reward states that distribute the vaccine rapidly with larger grants in the future.
On Tuesday, four Alabama lawmakers circulated a letter to the media saying that ADPH’s slowness of problems and record keeping could cost the state getting additional doses in the future. ADPH responded that the government is currently allocating vaccine doses based on population.
The CDC policy announced under the Trump administration last week has not yet come into effect and it is unclear if it will ever happen under the Biden administration.
In Wednesday’s news release, the ADPH said it had diverted its employees from their usual duties to assist the country’s health departments in administering the vaccine.
“Every person who receives a COVID-19 survey deserves one and will receive it, because we are determined to make sure that no vaccine is left unused on the shelf,” said Dr. Scott Harris, Alabama health officer, said. “We do everything in our power to get shots in the arms as quickly as possible.”
ADPH says the state has so far received 446,150 doses of vaccine from the federal government and administered 184,618. Alabama allocated a total of 640,150 doses, but not all were delivered. According to ADPH, no vaccine doses have been discarded in Alabama so far, and the ADPH is now offering a map of providers offering the vaccine on its website.
The state has more than 346,000 people in phase 1a of its vaccine grant plan and another 348,000 residents aged 75 or older who are currently eligible to receive the vaccine.
The state has not yet launched a promised online registry to enroll people to get on the list to receive a vaccine. There is a direct vaccination hotline for vaccination, but is flooded with callers and is often difficult to get through. Yet Harris says supply is the biggest limiting factor.
“The biggest obstacle to vaccination is still the limited vaccine supply,” Harris said. “We are trying to manage the expectations because the timeline for receiving vaccine has not changed and we can not give people a resource that we do not have yet.”
Dr Don Williamson, president of the Alabama Hospital Association, told AL.com on Wednesday that while it is clear that there are problems with the federal database, the biggest problem is the lack of supply.
“We have a number of hospitals, but the problem is not that they have been vaccinated and cannot give it,” Williamson said. “It’s because they have no vaccine left.”
* AL.com reporter Sarah Whites-Koditschek contributed to this report.