PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — The Pennsylvania Department of Health is hiring a consulting company to help with vaccine distribution. The announcement came the day after the department announced a significant shortage of the Moderna vaccine that will require the rescheduling of about 100,000 vaccine appointments.
David Mihalic, who is in charge of the vaccine at Einstein Medical Center Montgomery, said he can’t say for certain what caused the shortage, but he’s had concerns for weeks.
“I still find that that disconnect in the different ways people are registering, different ways people are reporting. One system talking differently to another and then going back to state systems that really weren’t designed to do any of this,” he said.
Marc Ost, coowner of Eric’s Rx Shoppe, said when vaccine does arrive, they aren’t labeled as first or second doses.
“When they come, they’re not labeled first or second doses, they’re the same exact product. Most of the time the shipment is kind of separated in that sense. If you ordered 200 first doses and 400 second doses, now you're receiving two separate shipments,” Ost said.
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He said it’s hard to critique the state’s plan to make up the lost doses over the next few weeks until he sees how it goes.
Everyone has the same goal of getting as many shots in arms as possible, he said, and he’s hopeful they keep doing it with minimal change to their customers.
The department said they’re working to make up the difference over the coming weeks.
The CDC has said the second Moderna dose, which is exactly the same as the first dose, can be given anywhere from four to six weeks after the first.