One day after the first Floridians received COVID-19 vaccinations, Gov. Ron DeSantis and another governor said shipments of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine were “on hold,” but the company has now fired back, saying that is not the case.
What You Need To Know
- DeSantis says Pfizer production issues causing vaccine shipment delays
- Pfizer says there no issues with production or distribution
- Florida Medical Association urges patience
- RELATED: DeSantis: Florida’s Next 2 Weeks of COVID Vaccine Shipments “On Hold”
“We were supposed to get for next week 205,000 Pfizer and then the next week 247,000. Those next two weeks shipments of Pfizer are on hold right now,” DeSantis said Tuesday in West Palm Beach. “We don’t know whether we will get any or not. And we’re just going to have to wait.”
He added, “It’s a production issue with Pfizer. It has nothing to do with the federal government or nothing to do specifically with Florida. This is just what’s happening nationwide.”
However, Pfizer released a statement on Thursday, stating the company had successfully shipped 2.9 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and denied problems with the production and distribution of doses around the country.
“Pfizer is not having any production issues with our COVID-19 vaccine, and no shipments containing the vaccine are on hold or delayed. This week, we successfully shipped all 2.9 million doses that we were asked to ship by the U.S. Government to the locations specified by them. We have millions more doses sitting in our warehouse but, as of now, we have not received any shipment instructions for additional doses,” the company stated.
Pfizer further stated, “We remain confident in our ability to deliver up to 50 million doses globally this year and up to 1.3 billion next year.”
The Florida Medical Association stated Thursday it recognizes initial amount of available vaccine doses is “limited” and called for patience “as the state undertakes the unprecedented effort to implement a mass inoculation program … Manufacturing, distribution, and administration still pose challenges and will require an extraordinary level of cooperation in order to ensure that everyone who wants the vaccine receives the vaccine as soon as it becomes available.”
DeSantis is not the only governor who has had issues with the alleged delays.
Washington State Gov. Jay Inslee tweeted about it, saying the CDC told him his state's allotment would be slashed 40 percent along with other states.
.@CDCgov has informed us that WA’s vaccine allocation will be cut by 40 percent next week — and that all states are seeing similar cuts.
— Governor Jay Inslee (@GovInslee) December 17, 2020
This is disruptive and frustrating. We need accurate, predictable numbers to plan and ensure on-the-ground success.
No explanation was given.
As of Friday morning, the federal government has not responded to Pfizer's comments.
Meanwhile, DeSantis also said this week he is confident the Food and Drug Administration will grant emergency use authorization for a COVID-19 vaccine produced by Moderna.
According to DeSantis, the state of Florida will receive 370,000 doses of that company’s first round of distribution, starting this weekend.
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