“We don’t know how the behavior of the vaccine would be if we omit to give the second dose at three weeks or at four weeks after the first dose,” Moncef Slaoui, one of the officials leading the vaccine rollout, told CBS last month.
“As always, early in manufacturing, there may be challenges. Sometimes, vaccine doses can be delayed by a week or a few days or, God forbid, by three weeks. It would be inappropriate to partially immunize large numbers of people, and not complete their immunization,” he said.
But there has been debate in the public health community about whether to delay second doses of the Moderna and Pfizer shots in order to provide first doses to more Americans faster, in the hope the pandemic will be rapidly brought under control. President Donald Trump’s FDA commissioner, Stephen Hahn, has publicly argued against such a strategy.
In a letter to a pair of senior Trump administration officials, the Democratic governors echoed Biden’s plan to release more first doses and urged the Trump administration to adopt the strategy before the inauguration.
“We demand that the federal government begin distributing these reserved doses to states immediately,” the governors wrote in a letter, dated Friday and obtained by Bloomberg News. It was sent to Health Secretary Alex Azar as well as General Gustave Perna, who has been leading the logistical rollout of the vaccine.
“Our states are ready to work around the clock to ramp up distribution, get more shots in arms, and save more American lives,” the governors said.
The letter was signed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, California Governor Gavin Newsom, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, Washington Governor Jay Inslee and Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers.
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.