NYC postpones 23,000 COVID-19 inoculation appointments
NEW YORK — Coronavirus vaccine shortages have forced New York City to reschedule 23,000 inoculation appointments this week, prompting Mayor Bill de Blasio to renew calls that the federal government compel manufacturers to step up production.
De Blasio and Gov. Andrew Cuomo have been criticizing the federal government's slow vaccine output for weeks now with the mayor repeatedly predicting the city would run out of doses before week’s end.
“We need the supply expanded in a huge way,” de Blasio said at a Wednesday press briefing.
News that the city has already had to cancel thousands of appointments came just hours before the swearing-in of President Joe Biden, who’s expected to use the Korean War-era Defense Production Act to force vaccine manufacturers to move more quickly.
To prolong the city’s ability to keep giving shots, de Blasio also called on the new Biden administration and the state government to allow the city to repurpose doses of the vaccine intended as a second shot to be used as first doses.
According to de Blasio, about 65,000 second doses are now being held in reserve.
“If we had those second doses freed up, we could reach those 23,000 New Yorkers this week,” he said. “We’ve got about 65,000 doses that we could put into play right away if we had that freedom.”
Using doses intended for a second vaccination as a first shot would not pose problems as far as the vaccine’s effectiveness, according to Dr. Jay Varma, de Blasio’s senior adviser for public health.
Varma noted that while it’s not ideal to get the second dose over a delayed time frame, delays won’t translate into a reduction in the protection afforded by two doses.
“There is benefit from even getting a single dose, and that flexibility has to be available to us at the local level to be able to make sure that we maximize the benefit for the maximum number of people,” he said. “The vaccine remains effective after you get that second dose even if it’s delayed.”
The latest development in the saga of the city’s dwindling vaccine supply was also punctuated on Wednesday by delays of shipments of Moderna vaccine doses.
City health officials said they had expected to receive a total of 103,400 doses Tuesday and now expect them to arrive Wednesday and Thursday. Details surrounding the holdup were not completely clear,
“Our best understanding is that this was purely a shipment issue,” city Health Commissioner Dr. Dave Chokshi said Wednesday. “Whether it was a logistical challenge of making sure there was enough packing material or dry ice for the shipment, we don’t have those details.”
Varma noted that under the Trump administration city officials have not had good “visibility” into the production of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccines — which he said is necessary for better understanding production delays.
“Vaccine production is unfortunately much, much more complicated than producing a drug. It is an enormously complex process,” he said. “There may be limitations that we don’t know about right now. Again, our hope is with the administration change that we’re going to be learning a little bit more into what the window is on this.”
