In this December 29, 2020 file, Penny Cracas, at the Chester County, Pa., Department of Health, lays a syringe with the Modern COVID-19 vaccine before administering it to emergency medical staff and health care workers in Chester County. Public Service Center in West Chester, Pa.
Matt Slocum / AP
Kate Brown, Oregon’s government, said Friday morning that the state’s efforts to speed up COVID-19 vaccinations were derailed by the Trump administration’s ‘mass deception’.
“Last night I received disturbing news, which was confirmed to me by General Perna of Operation Warp Speed: States will not receive increased loads of vaccines from the national stock next week because there are no federal reserve doses,” Brown said on Twitter.
Last night I received disturbing news, which was confirmed to me by General Perna of Operation Warp Speed: States will not receive increased loads of vaccines from the national stock next week because there are no federal reserve doses.
– Governor Kate Brown (@OregonGovBrown) 15 January 2021
“I demand answers from the Trump administration. “I am shocked and shocked that they set an expectation that they could not foresee, with such serious consequences,” she continued. ‘This is a deception on a national scale. Oregon seniors, teachers and all of us, were dependent on the promise that Oregon’s share of the federal reserve of vaccines would be released to us. ”
The governor’s tweet on Friday morning indicates a major setback, less than a day after the Oregon Health Authority said it had reached its goal of administering 12,000 doses of COVID-19 a day and that it was preparing to attempt to expand even further.
Now the attempt is in question.
“This is extremely disturbing and puts our plans to jeopardize the qualification,” Oregon’s Director of Health Patrick Allen wrote in a letter to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar on Thursday after writing about the situation.
“The plans were made based on your statement about ‘the release of the total stock’ you have in reserve,” Allen wrote in the letter, which was made public by the governor’s office on Friday morning. “If this information is accurate, we will not be able to vaccinate our vulnerable elderly again on January 23 as planned.”
U.S. Army General Gustave Perna, Chief Operating Officer of Operation Warp Speed, speaks at a news conference on Operation Warp Speed and distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine on Tuesday, January 12, 2021 in Washington. According to Oregon Brown, Oregon, Perna told her Thursday night that states will not receive increased vaccines from the national stockpile next week as expected.
Patrick Semansky / AP
Earlier this week, Brown announced that Oregon will expand its COVID-19 vaccination efforts to include people 65 and older, as well as teachers.
And in the Portland area, four major health systems have pledged to raise staff and doses to launch a major vaccination effort at the city’s Oregon Convention Center, which begins later this month.
These plans were based in part on the expectation that Oregon would receive additional doses from the federal government as of January 23rd.
According to a report by Oregonlive / The Oregonian Thursday, the state still has 200,000 unused doses on hand, but officials have struggled to track the spread of the vaccine.
According to a report Friday morning in The Washington Post, the Trump administration stopped storing the vaccine late last year and sending doses directly from the assembly line. Government officials said they were confident pharmaceutical manufacturers could meet demand now that they had reached a constant pace of production, The Washington Post reported.
Elected President Joe Biden has said he plans to release accumulated vaccines to speed up the vaccination after his inauguration.
This story unfolds. Check for updates.