US orders 200M additional COVID-19 vaccine doses amid ‘wartime effort’ to address shortages
President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said this week that the government has ordered an additional 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine that he expects will be available by mid-summer.
“That’s 100 million more doses of Pfizer and 100 million more doses of Moderna — 200 million more doses than the federal government had previously secured. Not in hand yet, but ordered,” Biden said.
The White House said the new order means the federal government will have enough vaccine supply for the entire U.S. population by the end of the summer.
Before taking office, Biden set a goal to administer 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine in his first 100 days as president. So far, around 47 million doses have been delivered in the U.S. since last month, and around 24 million people have received at least one shot, according to Andy Slavitt, senior advisor to the White House COVID-19 Response Team.
Slavitt said in a press briefing on Wednesday that Biden “is pushing us to view 1 million [doses] per day as the floor, not the ceiling.”
‘Wartime effort’
Biden, who spoke earlier in the week, did not appear during the Wednesday press briefing, which was held via Zoom and also featured comments from new CDC Director Rochelle P. Walensky, MD, MPH, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony S. Fauci, MD, White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients and Marcella Nunez-Smith, MD, MHS, who chairs the White House’s COVID-19 Equity Task Force.
The U.S. is expected to need “well over 500 million doses” of COVID-19 vaccine to vaccinate everyone aged 16 years or older, Slavitt said — an estimate that is based on the currently authorized vaccines developed by Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna, which are both given in two doses.
Efficacy data on a one-dose vaccine being developed by Johnson & Johnson are expected within days, Fauci said, and could change those estimates. Fauci said those results will include efficacy data not only from the U.S. but also from Brazil and South Africa, where two of the SARS-CoV-2 variants were first reported.
Walensky said more than 300 cases of a variant first documented in the United Kingdom have been identified in the U.S. so far, but that the variant first reported in South Africa — which has concerned scientists more — has not yet been identified in the U.S.
The additional doses ordered from Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna will increase the country’s total vaccine order from 400 million to 600 million, according to Slavitt, who said any stockpile of vaccine that may have previously existed does not anymore.
Slavitt said the government was announcing a 16% increase in vaccine supply to every state, each week, for the next 3 weeks. This includes a minimum of 10 million doses per week.
Currently, Pfizer and Moderna are committed to delivering a total of 200 million vaccine doses in the U.S. by the end of March. Pfizer said it believes it can deliver 120 million doses alone this quarter.
Last week, Biden signed an executive order meant to use the Defense Production Act to expedite COVID-19 vaccine production. He said the administration has already identified suppliers in order to increase the production of vaccinations and personal protective equipment.
“We’re using the Defense Production Act to launch a full-scale, wartime effort to address the supply shortages we inherited from the previous administration,” Biden said. “This is a wartime undertaking; it’s not hyperbole.”
Syringes ordered
Another part of the plan is to make sure that providers are able to draw an additional sixth dose of vaccine out of the Pfizer-BioNTech vials, Slavitt said. (Pharmacists discovered early on that vials of the vaccine contained more than the indicated five doses.)
Slavitt confirmed the government would be purchasing low dead space syringes to draw the additional doses.
“We're going to make sure that we get six doses out of Pfizer's vials, everywhere in America, because that's the potential,” he said.
The administration has contracted Becton Dickinson, a medical technology manufacturer, in order to provide 286 million syringes for COVID-19 vaccine doses, with 40 million low dead space syringes, Becton Dickinson spokesman Troy Kirkpatrick announced earlier this week.
“We now have a national strategy to beat COVID-19,” Biden said. “It’s comprehensive. It’s based on science, not politics. It’s based on truth, not denial. And it is detailed.”
Perspective
Back to Top
It is critical to have a steady supply of vaccine in order to complete vaccination of the eligible U.S. population. It is important to realize, however, that this additional purchase is for the summer and will not immediately impact vaccination efforts in the coming months. During the next months, by contrast, it will be critical to increase transparency on vaccine delivery amounts and timing; increase coordination and communication between federal, state and local health authorities; provide resources to faltering states; and remove all bureaucratic barriers to getting vaccine into arms.
Perspective
Back to Top
The Biden administration is jumping into a cauldron of pandemic mismanagement that will take some time to turn around. Yet, day by day, we see positive concrete steps to attack different aspects of the problem, and, importantly, we see a return to trust in science and public health, truth and transparency. Even though we likely will not see the newly announced 200 million vaccine doses from Pfizer and Moderna until summer, it was refreshing to hear the truth about the timeline, and I think most Americans welcome this kind of transparency, even though it means we will be struggling with vaccine supply for months to come. Finally, it seems that someone has done the math.
Another important aspect to the announcement was that states will now be able to plan for vaccine distribution 3 weeks in advance. This doesn’t sound like much, but it could be huge. When states and counties cannot predict what they will receive from week to week, it is impossible to schedule vaccinations in advance, including for the crucial second shot. In Georgia, for example, getting appointments for vaccines has been pure chaos and extremely frustrating for the public. County health departments are doing the best they can, but each was left to construct its own appointment systems. Appointments open and close within hours as slots are filled, leaving people dangling and jumping from county to county and pharmacy to pharmacy. Citizen crowdsourcing of vaccine slots has emerged as a way to get information about when and where shots are available. This is crazy, but it is the legacy that we were left by the previous administration. Now it is clear that CDC is aggressively working on transparently tracking vaccine administration and availability and I hope the Biden team will be working on creating improved systems for the public to secure vaccination appointments.
Collapse
The White House. Fact sheet: President Biden announces new steps to boost vaccine supply and increase transparency for states, tribes, and territories. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/01/26/fact-sheet-president-biden-announces-new-steps-to-boost-vaccine-supply-and-increase-transparency-for-states-tribes-and-territories/. Accessed Jan. 27, 2021.
Read more from COVID-19 Resource Center
View all
Read more about