Second-Shot Crunch Leaves Many Without Complete Immunizations

Second-Shot Crunch Leaves Many Without Complete Immunizations John Tozzi Bloomberg.com

Almost a month after U.S. vaccination campaigns ramped up to give Covid-19 shots to more than a million people a day, their second doses are coming due, straining state rollouts and and leaving some without complete immunizations.

In Texas alone, almost 6,000 people were overdue for their second shots in early February. Washington state officials said earlier this week that some mass vaccination clinics would only deliver follow-up doses. And a Michigan hospital system canceled last-dose appointments for the past week after its supply was reduced.

“All I have on hand is enough to get me through today and tomorrow,” Carolyn Wilson, chief operating officer of Beaumont Health system in Michigan, said Tuesday in an interview.

U.S. health officials warned last year that two-shot regimens would raise the degree of difficulty for Covid immunizations, and originally held back second doses to make sure they would be available as recommended three to four weeks after the first. As President Joe Biden accelerates purchases and distribution in an effort to get protection for almost all Americans by the end of the summer, critical weaknesses in the system are starting to show.

“For the first six weeks of this program or so, we were only giving first shots, and now we have to kind of pay the piper,” said Eric Toner, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. ...

Meanwhile, more data is emerging that supports a delay between doses. AstraZeneca Plc, whose vaccine hasn’t been cleared in the U.S., says its shots work best when they are administered 12 weeks apart. Israeli researchers found the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine gives 85% protection from symptoms after just one dose. Pfizer doesn’t think one dose will work, Chief Executive Officer Albert Bourla said Friday at a plant in Michigan where he appeared with Biden, though the company is looking at the issue.