The single-shot Covid vaccine from Johnson and Johnson was supposed to be the catalyst for the country’s return to normal. Instead, it causes confusion and finger-pointing between the states and the Biden government over why millions of doses sit unused.
Nearly three weeks after the Food and Drug Administration approved the shots, no one seems to be able to explain why the vaccinations are delayed. Some states are suspected of deliberately holding back shots, while others believe it takes time to vaccinate populations such as the home-bound.
For the past two weeks, senior officials from the Biden administration have met privately to try to determine what happened. Two senior government officials believe states keep their J&J inventory until there is enough to reach communities and specific groups such as teachers or the disabled. But several government officials say they use everything they get as soon as they get it.
What is clear is that approximately 2.3 million of the 4.3 million doses of the vaccine administered were actually administered. Between 140 and 200,000 doses have been made in the arms of humans over the past few days, according to the Centers for Disease Control.
The bumpy J&J rollout highlights the challenges facing the White House in ensuring a timely and consistent administration of Covid-19 vaccines, with President Joe Biden announcing July 4 as “Independence Day” of the virus is considered. Because it only takes two weeks to reach immunity with the J&J shot – compared to five or six weeks for two doses of Pfizer and Moderna shots respectively – the absence of enough ‘one and done’ vaccinations has a ripple effect , which slows the overall slowdown in the rate of deployment.
Biden administration officials have repeatedly warned that the initial J&J deployment would be rocky, as only a limited number of shots were available during the opening weeks. Problems can also be exacerbated by overdue reporting. But they expect the distribution to be smooth if more vaccine is available by the end of this month.
“You can not distribute the vaccine fairly if there are not enough doses to distribute,” said a senior health official.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Because states have the final say on how their grants are distributed, some use the J&J vaccine for populations that are more difficult to make a second survey. Others set faster than equity and send the shots wide.
“It can be a little slower because everyone is trying to decide how to best use this particular vaccine,” said Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer of the Association of Civil Servants and Territorial Health Officers.
West Virginia initially uses the J&J shot to vaccinate its homeless and homeless population, as well as those with intellectual and developmental disabilities who live in urban areas. By next week, health officials expect to consume the entire first batch of 15,500 J&J shots, and the vaccine appointments have already been made, according to Clay Marsh, Covid-19 Tsar of West Virginia.
“I think people get a sense of how they can do it best,” Marsh said. “We are just trying to build the framework, the logistics, the processes so that we can make the best use of this new opportunity.”
Pennsylvania uses its 107,600 doses of J&J to vaccinate teachers and other school staff in an effort to get children back into the classroom. According to a health department spokesman, nearly 83,900 shots were fired on Friday.
Maryland has used its shots in various institutions, such as health departments, hospitals and two massive vaccination sites.
“We want to make sure we’re always flexible and offer people the most options, and that’s why we want to get into as many institutions as possible,” said Bryan Mroz, the state’s assistant secretary.
Earlier this month, public health scientists and experts warned against recommending J & J’s shot to specific groups, and were concerned about the perception that the shot was ‘different’ from others. Jeff Zients, coordinator of the Coronavirus in the White House, even warned that the White House could intervene “technical assistance” if it is taught that states do so. The J&J shot has been shown in trials to be less effective than Pfizer or Moderna, but it offers strong protection against hospitalization and death.
“I think the federal government has tried to provide guidance on that – it’s helpful,” Plescia said. “But as we have seen, states are attentive and respect their federal leadership, but then they do what works for them.”
Meanwhile, governors are sensitive to data collection. In private weekly calls with the White House, they urged Biden administration officials to expand on how many doses the federal government is responsible for administering, worrying that CDC’s public prosecutor holds states responsible for doses beyond their control. .
The CDC will, according to a senior administration official, provide additional reports showing vaccination data in states through both federal and state channels.
The official stressed that the agency focused on the number of Americans vaccinated as a whole, ‘relevant to disease control’, rather than on the channel along which the shot was administered. States have access to this information through a system called Tiberius.
It is unclear how many doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine are administered by federal vaccine sites, retail pharmacies and federally qualified health centers, which states do not control. According to a spokesman, as of March 10, approximately 50,000 doses of J&J have been shipped to California, Texas and Florida for administration at federal sites managed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. An additional 23,000 were in transit at the time, the official said. FEMA did not respond to additional requests for comment on how many doses of the vaccine have been delivered in the past two weeks and how many have been administered overall.
Weekly awards for the J&J vaccine have also changed in recent days, according to reports from various internal information on senior leadership obtained by POLITICO. At the beginning of the month, the administration allocated 3.9 million doses to states, a federal program that administers doses to retail pharmacies, safety net providers and the vaccination centers run by FEMA. Since that time, the doses have rolled out sporadically.
The administration originally said they may not receive more doses of the vaccine until the end of March. According to one March 11 briefing, the government said it plans to allocate another 400,000 doses across the country next week. Another March 15 briefing said the administration had attributed the allocation to 600,000. It is still unclear how many J&J doses have been done through quality control and are awaiting shipment.
Despite the increasing allocation numbers over the past two weeks, the vaccination rate has remained low.