Millions of Americans do not get their second dose coronavirus vaccine within the recommended period to ensure optimal protection against COVID-19, according to a CBS MoneyWatch review of the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
As of Wednesday, just over 2.8 million Americans who received their first shot – nearly 12% of those vaccinated – did not receive their second dose within the 28-day interval prescribed for Moderna’s vaccine, one of the two approved for use in the United States. other vaccine, co-produced by Pfizer and German BioNTech, is expected to be administered 21 days after the first dose.
The number of people yet to receive their second dose of vaccine is based on the latest public data from the CDC. Vaccine and healthcare experts who checked the figures for CBS MoneyWatch said it was extravagant with scattered reports of delays that people were getting both shots within the proposed time frame.
“I hear anecdotes about people trying to plan their second shots and having challenges doing so,” said Bruce Y. Lee, who studies health management and public policy at City University of New York. “It’s challenging to do a vaccine development, even more so if it involves two shots. It all had to be planned last year before it went into effect, and there is more evidence that it was not.”
At the end of January, 96% of Americans who received their first vaccine shot received their second. four days of the properly prescribed interval, according to earlier CDC data obtained by CBS News. But the agency did not release an update on how the country is doing with the application of both shots within the recommended period.
Meanwhile, the proportion of people receiving their second dose on time has shrunk – and the gap, which was just over 1 million just a week ago, has grown rapidly to 2,826,134 people as of 24 February.
A CDC spokesman said part of the recent slowdown in first-dose and second-dose administration was due to the weather. She said the CDC plans to release new information on the completion of the second dose soon.
Hospital administrators and state health officials who spoke to CBS MoneyWatch attributed the delays in people getting their second chance to a dose shortage, as well as the planning and dispatch of snafus.
- In Arizona, residents who went to the mass vaccination center outside Phoenix at State Farm Stadium could not get appointments for second shots. Although the scheduling problem has since been addressed, it has caused delays. Only 35% of those vaccinated in Arizona received a second dose, one of the lowest percentages among states. This can be compared to about 50% nationwide.
- In Pennsylvania, officials said last week that an earlier blend was causing a number of health care providers to use doses that had to be reserved for second shots at new patients. With last week’s issue, the state left at least 60,000 doses as needed to give the second survey on time.
- In Iowa, some states that were supposed to get Moderna’s vaccine got the Pfizer BioNTech version. The two shots were not interchangeable. Earlier this week, the state health official told about 14,000 residents living in and around Des Moines who had received Moderna shots that they would have to wait before their scheduled follow-up date.
According to health workers, Americans seem less worried choose to skip their second shots, a problem that experts have warned could undermine the explosion of the vaccine.
Dr. David Basel, head of vaccinations for Avera Medical in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, one of the largest health care networks in the state, said less than 1% of all vaccinations were there for the second survey. The biggest reason why people do not show up between shots is a disease in the meantime, and he added: “We vaccinate the elderly first and most people at the greatest risk. People get sick and it is often not with COVID not.”
A lack of vaccine for the second doses appears to be a major issue for hospital systems. Jessica Daley, a pharmacist and vice president at Premier, who buys medical supplies for thousands of hospitals in the U.S., said many hospitals have been instructed to use every dose they have for the first shots, and that there are more stock will come. Recently, however, they have seen their shipments drop. In recent weeks, a number of states have shifted more vaccines to pharmacy chains or mass vaccination rooms and away from hospitals.
“We did a spot scan, and the biggest concern of hospitals is getting the vaccine,” Daley said. “I’ve heard of hospitals not getting the second doses.”
A new 42-day window from the CDC
More encouragingly, some health experts believe that delays in the second dose of vaccine do not harm the US vaccination effort. Earlier this month, the CDC issued new guidelines that second shots could be administered up to 42 days after the first dose, although the agency reiterated that a second shot is optimal within 21 or 28 days.
Recent early studies also suggest that a single shot still provides significant protection against the spread of the coronavirus, although it is not as much as two shots.
“In the grand scheme of things, if you look at the other problems we’re experiencing, it’s a small problem,” said Will Humble, a former Arizona public health official.
Humble also said ensuring more people get a first dose, rather than completing the second dose, would make the vaccine explosion more equitable for minority communities, and infection rates in general would likely be lower.
“We saved ourselves in a less efficient way of saving lives because of the way the trials were formulated,” he said of the initial emphasis on administering two doses.
However, most health experts recommend that individuals try to stick to the recommended intervals to get two vaccinations. Tinglong Dai, a professor of health management at Johns Hopkins Carey Business School, said the vaccine supply is not increasing as fast as needed to continue the current rate of vaccinations. States will have to withhold more doses to ensure they have enough to deliver a second dose within the appropriate time frame, he added.
Earlier this week, Dai released a study with two co-authors from the University of Oxford and the University of California at Berkeley, which found that releasing more second doses to increase the number of people getting at least one shot , does not lower the coronavirus infection rate. The article did establish that the rate of infection is prolonged by prolonging the time between doses, but will eventually lead to more cases as the pandemic continues.
“I do think distribution is going to get better,” Dai said. ‘But unless the supply of vaccine increases exponentially, we will have a growing backlog [of people waiting for that second shot]. “