Trump Officials Held Back Covid Vaccine Doses to Ensure Availability

President-elect Joe Biden’s team says he’ll distribute more of the available doses of coronavirus vaccines, reversing the Trump administration’s practice of holding back the second shots needed to reach maximum potency.

The move, announced by Biden’s office Friday and supported by a group of Democratic governors, represents a gamble by the incoming administration that there will be enough vaccine available to ensure second shots after 21 days for the Pfizer Inc.-BioNTech SE vaccine, and 28 days for the Moderna Inc. shot.

A pharmacist draws a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine at the Brooklyn Center for Rehabilitation and Healthcare nursing home on Jan. 5

The decision is a response to the sluggish vaccine rollout as Covid-19 cases and deaths have hit record levels in the U.S. Biden’s statement didn’t make clear how many shots he might still withhold. But TJ Ducklo, a Biden spokesman, said the president-elect plans to release added details next week.

“He supports releasing available doses immediately, and believes the government should stop holding back vaccine supply so we can get more shots in Americans’ arms now,” Ducklo said in a written statement.

The Trump administration has withheld about half of allocated doses of the two vaccines authorized for emergency use in the U.S. The decision was a hedge against uncertainty in vaccine supply, made to ease concerns among Americans that they might not be able to complete the two-dose regimens shown in studies to be more than 90% effective.

Biden’s transition team, though, remains confident that manufacturers can meet the demand, and will use the Defense Production Act to force production of materials if necessary, according to a transition official who asked not to be identified. While Biden’s camp hasn’t said specifically how many of the withheld second doses they would send out immediately, the transition official said it’s expected to be nearly all of them.

Pfizer will work with the Biden administration on distribution challenges “so that as many Americans as possible have access to our vaccine as quickly as possible,” spokesman Eamonn Nolan said in an email. A representative from Moderna didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Some patients who got the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine are already receiving their second shots.

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