Thread by @DrEricDing

BREAKING—We are out of vaccine reserves! Trump HHS Sec Azar announced this week that the govt would begin releasing #COVID19 vaccine doses held in reserve for 2nd shots—but no such reserve existed!! Trump HHS had already shipped out reserves end of Dec!
washingtonpost.com/health/2021/01…

2) “Now, state and local officials across the country are realizing their limited vaccine supply will not immediately increase, dashing hopes of dramatically expanding access for millions of people.”

3) “Health officials in some cities and states were informed in recent days about the reality of the situation, while others are still in the dark.

4) “Because both of the vaccines authorized for emergency use in the United States are two-dose regimens, the Trump administration’s initial policy was to hold back second doses to protect against the possibility of manufacturing disruptions.

5) “But that approach shifted in recent weeks, according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter. The result is that next week’s allocations will remain flat.

6) “Operation Warp Speed, the Trump administration’s initiative to speed the development of vaccines and therapeutics, stopped stockpiling second doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine at the end of last year, instead taking second doses directly off the manufacturing line.” 🔥

7) “The last shots held in reserve of Moderna’s supply, meanwhile, began shipping out over the weekend.”

Basically we’ve already blown thru all reserves!!! @ashishkjha and @ArthurCaplan warned this is risky.

8) don’t forget, Trump WH previously turned down 100 million more Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine doses! It went to EU instead - they snatched it up when Trump HHS declined it.

Now look where we are.

https://twitter.com/DrEricDing/status/1336065126093426689

9) How did we mess up rollout?

➡️Warp Speed leaders waited >2 months to approve a plan to distribute & administer vaccines proposed by U.S. health officials leaving states with little time to implement a mass-vaccination campaign amid #COVID19 surge. wsj.com/articles/covid…

10) ...”CDC had wanted to start helping states plan in June how to get people vaccinated. But OWS rebuffed plan for distributing vaccines. They adopted similar plan in Aug only after exploring other options—then held release of CDC’s playbook for 2 weeks for additional clearance”

11) Oregon Governor also confirms the same crisis now. There are no more extra supply of increased vaccine doses able to be shipped from reserves that was promised by Trump HHS. OWS is on empty on reserves.

https://twitter.com/OregonGovBrown/status/1350109252807913473

12) Pfizer released a funny statement..

“Operation Warp Speed has asked us to start shipping second doses only **recently**. As a result, we have on hand all the 2nd doses of previous shipments to US.”

How “recent” is recent? And why held there? WaPo?
reuters.com/article/us-hea…

13) Oregon Governor doubles down. She is sure of something weird with the inability to deploy any vaccine reserves. The Pfizer statement reads very oddly.

https://twitter.com/oregongovbrown/status/1350109254955352065

14) UPDATE: new report by @ErinBanco (great follow on COVID & national security) says millions of vaccines currently missing...

https://twitter.com/drericding/status/1353767508621275136