Can President Biden really boost production? Why are governors trying to buy directly from Pfizer? And when will supply exceed demand?
Demand for vaccines is skyrocketing as the United States grapples with a record death toll from Covid-19 and the threat of new, more contagious variants. After a slow start in December, many states and cities have quickly ramped up vaccine delivery, widening access to larger groups of people and setting up mass testing sites. But now there’s a new wrinkle: Some mayors and governors say they have run out of available vaccines, and have had to cancel appointments. The Biden administration has promised to overhaul the country’s faltering vaccine effort, but there’s only so much it can do to increase the available supply. Here’s what you need to know. There are simply not enough doses of authorized vaccines to meet the enormous demand. And that is not likely to change for the next few months. The two companies with authorized vaccines, Moderna and Pfizer, have each promised to provide the United States with 100 million vaccine doses by the end of March, or enough for 100 million people to get the necessary two shots. But that doesn’t mean those 200 million doses are sitting in a factory warehouse somewhere, waiting to be shipped. Both companies are manufacturing the doses at full capacity, and are collectively releasing between 12 million and 18 million doses each week. As of Wednesday, nearly 36 million doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines had been distributed to state and local governments. However, only about 16.5 million shots had been administered to patients. But as local health authorities become more adept at vaccine distribution, they will eventually catch up to the limited supply. Some local officials, including those in New York City, have said they are already reaching that point, and have had to cancel appointments because they said they do not have enough. Vaccine experts and the companies themselves have said that at least in the short term, using the Defense Production Act will not significantly increase supply, although every little bit could help. That’s because manufacturing facilities are already at or near capacity, and there is a worldwide race to develop vaccines that use a finite amount of resources. Although the Trump administration was criticized for not using the Defense Production Act more aggressively to ramp up production of testing supplies and protective gear, it did use the act many times to give vaccine manufacturers priority access to suppliers of raw ingredients and equipment. In a plan released on Thursday, the Biden administration indicated it would continue to use the act to boost supplies needed for vaccine manufacturing, as well as other materials that are required to immunize tens of millions of people. Although the plan provided few details, one example cited is increasing production of a special syringe that can squeeze six doses out of Pfizer vials that were originally intended to contain five. There is no significant reserve of vaccines to speak of.
