Trump Reportedly Promised Health Officials Vaccine Doses From a Reserve That Didn’t Exist
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President Donald Trump reportedly promised doses of the coronavirus vaccine to health officials across the United States from a reserve that had already been depleted, according to the Washington Post.
The news comes after Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar announced this week that the federal government would start to release doses in the reserve for those in need of their second shot — but no reserve existed.
“States were shocked and surprised that they did not see an increase in their allocations, and when they asked for explanations, some of them were told there was not a large stockpile of second doses to draw from,” an official working on vaccination planning told the Post. “They thought they were getting more doses and they planned for more doses and opened up to 65 and up, thinking they were getting more.”
Officials were informed that Operation Warp Speed had stopped storing second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at the end of 2020, which contrasted what was detailed in the Trump administration’s updated rollout plan.
Due to the two-step process of both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, Trump’s initial plan was to delay the second dose, but the policy later changed, according to officials who spoke to the Post.
“Because we now have a consistent pace of production, we can now ship all of the doses that had been held in physical reserve,” Azar said at a Tuesday briefing, apparently referring to the already drained reserve.
A health director in Oregon, Patrick M. Allen, later wrote an email to Azar, reportedly fuming over the false claims made regarding the nonexistent stockpile.
“Earlier today, we became concerned when we discovered there were no additional doses available for allocation,” Allen wrote.
“If true, this is extremely disturbing, and puts our plans to expand eligibility at grave risk,” he added. “Those plans were made on the basis of reliance on your statement about ‘releasing the entire supply’ you have in reserve. If this information is accurate, we will be unable to begin vaccinating our vulnerable seniors on Jan. 23, as planned.”
