Slavitt said the rocky beginning of the proliferation effort is creating a backlog of doses sitting in states. He said the issue was also exacerbated by inconsistent information states had previously received from the federal government about how much vaccine they would receive each week.
“We fully understand that this was a direct result of the lack of predictability that many states and providers had about how many doses they would receive,” Slavitt said during a briefing on the pandemic response. He noted that the government has committed to notifying states of grants in a three-week window to enable better planning.
Slavitt also said the federal government initially overestimated how many doses of CVS and Walgreens should be sent as part of a program that vaccinates long-term care facilities, leading to states being put in stock. The CDC works with states to re-allocate some of the unused doses, POLITICO report last week.
About 62 percent of the distributed doses have now been administered, up from 46 percent about two weeks ago, Slavitt said. He added that the government expects the effectiveness of the state vaccination programs to ‘gradually improve’.