Expectations of a surge in COVID vaccine supply have yet to materialize in Florida, and federal projections are signaling officials to expect similar supply levels — nearly 500,000 first doses per week — in the second half of March.
After an initial shipment of 175,100 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine at the start of the month, the state has seen its shipments dwindle to weekly installments of 24,100 over the last two weeks, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention database. On Wednesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said the state was not expecting more shipments of the one-dose vaccine “for the next two or three weeks.”
The federal supply of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine has leveled off at around 282,00 to 287,000 first doses per week over the last two weeks of allotments, according to the CDC, while the Moderna vaccine supply has remained flat at 208,000 first doses per week over the last month.
Florida Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz told the Miami Herald on Thursday that the federal projections “show our vaccine will be flat for two weeks.”
Moskowitz deferred questions about the reasons why supply was flattening to the federal government. A CDC official acknowledged that supply to the federal retail pharmacy program has remained “stagnant,” but said that projections of future supply to states are decided by the White House and managed within the Tiberius vaccine tracking system by the Department of Health and Human Services. White House and HHS officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The rate of rise in vaccinations in the U.S. has plateaued somewhat in recent days, and the number of vaccine doses administered per day has hovered between 2 and 3 million for much of March.
“My presumption is this is a supply problem,” said Eric Toner, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “The increase in the Moderna and Pfizer vaccine … is not quite what we expected at this point, and the Johnson & Johnson has been delayed.”
Earlier this month, Dr. Anthony Fauci set expectations of increasing doses, speaking on CBS News’ “Face The Nation.”
“We need to gradually pull back [on restrictions] as we get more people vaccinated, and that is happening every single day, more and more people, and particularly as we get more doses, which are going to be dramatically increased as we get into April and May,” Fauci said.
This story will be updated.
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