Pfizer Says Millions of COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Are Sitting Unclaimed in Warehouse Coolers
The federal government has apparently neglected to give the company shipping instructions.
The U.S. government declared back in November that it was ready and able to distribute 6.8 million doses the first week after the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued emergency use authorization for Pfizer/BioNTech's COVID-19 vaccine and 40 million doses before the end of the year. That would be enough of the two-dose vaccine to inoculate 20 million Americans by January. That was then, this is now. Officials in various states are reporting that the shipments of the vaccine they expected next are now on hold.
In a statement, Pfizer rebuts rumors that there is a shortfall in doses for its vaccine due to production delays. "Pfizer is not having any production issues with our COVID-19 vaccine, and no shipments containing the vaccine are on hold or delayed," notes the company. "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."
Sadly, the federal government appears to be dawdling again while the toll of COVID-19 deaths, hospitalizations, and new diagnoses continues to rise ever higher. It's not like there's a pandemic or anything going on.
