Quote:
Originally Posted by Bill14564
I have been paying attention to the papers I read and trying to get some sense of where the vaccine is. I haven't had any success.
- - Pfizer says it has some vaccine in storage that the US hasn't requested yet
- - The US says it has delivered all that the States have requested
- - The States say it's a supply problem and they can't get any more from the US
- - Some statistics show 40M doses shipped but only 19M used
- - I think I remember a promise of 100M doses by the end of December. Even if that was later reduced to 50M it still leaves the question of where are the doses promised for December and where are the doses manufactured in the last three weeks?
- - Some articles say a large number of the doses that have been provided to CVS and Walgreens for nursing homes have not yet been used
- - GMR seemed to claim they had a source for 90,000 doses - those doses fell through soon after the news conference
- - I believe I saw today that Florida expected to receive 266,000 doses this week. That may sound like a lot but when divided among the 70ish counties in the State with Sumter being somewhere in the middle it works out to few doses for us.
I have to believe a product with as much visibility as the vaccine would be tracked very closely. Amazon can tell me whether that pair of socks I ordered is in the warehouse or on the truck or on my doorstep. I am skeptical that no one knows which ultra-low temperature freezers are holding 20M doses of this very valuable product. |
In order for the 100 million doses to be met, the suppliers would have to ramp up the manufacturing process greatly. Using Amazon as an example is not going to work. They are a private company with excellent and predictable inventory control. At present, the two approved vaccines have different distribution parameters. Pfizer requires storage at -70C which many places do not have. Consequently their distribution is hampered by the lack of refrigeration to accomplish this. Moderna can be stored in a normal refrigeration unit without special handling. Having the states and other political organizations help distribute the vaccine introduces another variable. The local political organizations should have a far better idea of where the vaccines should go. The changing guidelines at the CDC don't help. In my opinion, front line essential workers should be first, followed by anyone with the dangerous comorbidities regardless of age, then the older groups in decreasing age categories. The logic behind this is the front line workers are the most likely to catch and spread the virus to those around them. Those with comorbidities are the most likely to require hospital care which taxes the system and are most likely to die. After that, the older ones down to the youngest who seem to fight it off easier are in line.