Pfizer: No Production Delays With Coronavirus Vaccine

Pfizer Inc. says there are no production delays with its coronavirus vaccine, countering statements by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and other states.

Also, senior Trump administration officials on Thursday downplayed the risk of delays. Two officials who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity are citing a confusion over semantics.

On Tuesday, as vaccinations were being given to frontline health care workers in Florida, DeSantis said the next two shipments from Pfizer were on hold.

"We don't know if we're going to get any or not. We’re just going to have to wait," he said in West Palm Beach.

Other states said they have also been told to expect far fewer doses of the Pfizer vaccine in its second week of distribution, leading to worries about potential delays in shots for health care workers and long-term care residents.

However, Pfizer on Thursday said its production levels have not changed and that millions of doses were “sitting in a warehouse” without shipment instructions.

“No shipments containing the vaccine are on hold or delayed,” the company said in a statement. “This week, we successfully shipped all 2.9 million doses that we were asked to ship by the U.S. government to the locations specified by them.

The company said it has “continuously shared” all aspects of production and distribution capabilities with Operation Warp Speed, a public–private partnership initiated by the Trump administration to accelerate the development and distribution of a coronavirus vaccine.

The first U.S. doses of the vaccine were administered Monday. Already this week, hundreds of thousands of people, mostly health care workers, have been vaccinated.

Pfizer said it is readying for release millions of doses each day and that the volume will grow over the coming weeks.

“We remain confident in our ability to deliver up to 50 million doses globally this year and up to 1.3 billion next year,” the company said.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.

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