Last week I put up a chart showing weekend vaccination rates in the US. Here it is again for the weekend just ended:
This is the same chart as last time with the same trendline. All I've done is add seven more days of data.
As you can see, we have suddenly plateaued. There was no growth at all in the number of vaccinations given. Is this because it was a holiday weekend? Or because we've reached the limit of how many doses are available? Maybe next week will provide some answers.
Tomorrow afternoon, CDC will update quantities available to states next week:
https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/covid-19-vaccine-initial-allocations-pfizer
https://catalog.data.gov/dataset/covid-19-vaccine-distribution-allocations-by-jurisdiction-moderna
They have been stuck at about 1.5M/day production rate for a few weeks now.
Winter weather has affected vaccinations and distribution of vaccines, so that will have an effect. But mainly, it is supply limited. The new announcements from the Biden administration does not mean immediate jump in supplies. For that, J&J or AztaZeneca vaccines would need to be approved. Even then, other bottle necks could cause problems. I read somewhere that Moderna wants to put more doses in vials since loading vials is a bottleneck....and that is tentatively approved, and will take weeks to implement:
https://www.thestreet.com/investing/moderna-fda-nod-more-vaccine-vials
Maybe next pandemic someone will think to produce enough vial-loading machines during the time it took to test and approve the mRNA vaccines (almost a year). Or invent the machines if they don't exist. Or make the vials if they are the bottleneck. This would take a centralized authority and funding - private business doesn't look ahead in this way because there's no money in it.
You something like the Defense Production Act?
But that would leave Jarvanka fewer vaxxx doses to trade to Bahrain, Israel, Morocco, Qatar, & the UAE, plus prolly Modi's India, Duterte's Philippines, & Erdogan's Turkey, to cement shallow & possibly unenforceable foreign policy wins. (& in Erdogan's case, state-sponsored homicide coverups. Gotta protect the Saudis.)
Bingo. I'm waiting to find out what the Trump Crime Family did with all those doses reported shipped that no one can find. Maybe shipped to the places you mention?
Yeah, the government has really been a source of inspirational competence and planning during the pandemic. Andrew Cuomo for nursing home czar!
I'm going to say it was unusual snow and ice storms in big parts of the country that usually don't have to deal with it. From Seattle and Portland down to Texas and across to D.C. things were either slowed down or shutdown entirely.
Here in Seattle a neighbor asked to borrow a four-wheel-drive car so they could drive through a foot of snow to their shot, but their appointment was cancelled.
In other words the interest was probably still there but a lot of people weren't able to make their appointments. I'd expect a return to normal next weekend.
In Fairfax, VA the shot appointments were not canceled so my sister used her Subaru to get my 91 year old parents to their appointment. Unfortunately the drop off area left quite a bit of icy sidewalk to get to the door so she snagged a volunteer to get my dad into a wheelchair and my sister let mom cling to her as they gingerly navigated the sidewalk to the door.
I agree with the others, it was a combo of really bad weather in much of the country and available doses keeping the numbers where they are.
Portland Oregon is one huge sheet of ice all weekend. Roads are basically impassable , it appears the city spent its budget teargassing the same 30 protesters over and over, so the has been very little road clearing. Weather is the cause of this drop off in vaccinations
Do I detect a little sarcasm in your comment? I agree Portland officials should have arrested the night-time "protesters" who were really just acting like gangs. These were not people earnestly supporting BLM or anything worthwhile.
The BLM After Dark protestors were all opportunists, mostly white, from Reed College & other redoubts of Fauxgressivism in the PNW, but once Ted Wheeler & Chad Wolf hit them with the gasface, other, actually supportive of the BLM movement individuals, came out in solidarity.
(A bit like the ACLU defending the KKK.)
Nah.
It's more Portland gets significant snow events as often as (maybe -- it's prolly less than) Atlanta, & budgets accordingly. That leads to fewer plows, sand over salt, & a prolonged less when the day comes once a decade that a plow would be handy.
*mess not less