Donald Trump will leave office on Wednesday with the federal government having exhausted its supply of coronavirus vaccine doses, severely limiting the ability of federal and state officials to provide vaccines to millions of Americans in a timely manner, the Washington Post reports.
The Trump Administration is taking supplies directly from the manufacturing lines and distributing them around the country, leaving no inventory for necessarily follow-up vaccinations. State governments must now contend with a flat supply of doses, rather than the increasing quantity necessary to satisfy demand.
Because the available vaccines require two doses, administered weeks apart, for the vaccine to be fully effective, the supply chain must compensate for follow-up doses and new inoculations by increasing production. Trump’s Operation Warp Speed had pledged to ensure that such an increasing supply was available, with Trump saying first 100 million people–revised down to 20 million people–would be vaccinated by the end of 2020. In fact, fewer than 10 million have received vaccinations as of mid-January.
“If true, this is extremely disturbing, and puts our plans to expand eligibility at grave risk,” Oregon health director Patrick M. Allen stated in a letter to Alex Azar, the Secretary of Health and Human Services. “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.”
Three years after he took office, Trump frequently complained that the Obama Administration “left the cupboard bare” of supplies needed to combat the coronavirus. Trump, however, never explained why supplies of necessary equipment like ventilators and PPE were lacking so long into his term in office. He’ll leave office next Wednesday with the United States struggling to find vaccines, hospital beds in short supply, and medical professional still battling a shortage of PPE.