Rhode Island's Week 2 Coronavirus Vaccine Supply Reduced By 40%

PROVIDENCE, RI — Rhode Island's supply of the coronavirus vaccine for next week will be about 60 percent of what was initially expected, Gov. Gina Raimondo announced Thursday. The reasons for the decrease, decided at the federal level, is unclear.

On Wednesday, federal officials informed the Rhode Island Department of Health that the supply of Pfizer vaccines for the week of Dec. 21, originally slated to be 10,725 doses, would be cut down to 6,825. This lowered supply is not unique to Rhode Island, Gov. Gina Raimondo said, as other states have reported similar situations.

"No clear explanation has been provided by Operation Warp Speed," Raimondo said. "We are calling on the Trump administration to honor its commitments and provide the full allocation to Rhode Island. In the meantime, we are continuing to distribute the vaccine as quickly as possible to our frontline healthcare workers, and we are evaluating the impact of these reductions on our vaccination planning."

Wednesday afternoon, Rhode Island Department of Health officials offered an update on the vaccine distribution effort in the state. As of then, the state had received close to 4,900 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, 489 of which were given to frontline health care workers so far. The doses were split between Lifespan and Care New England.

Barring any weather-related delays, the department expects all hospital staff in the state will receive the first dose of the vaccine by the end of the week. Three weeks later, the federal government will release the second dose for this group.

In the coming weeks, nursing home staff and residents will receive vaccines, as well, through partnerships with CVS and Walgreens pharmacies.

Dr. Philip Chan, one of the department's leading doctors in the COVID-19 vaccine initiative, also dispelled several misconceptions about the vaccine's safety and who can get it.

According to Chan, pregnant and breastfeeding women can receive the vaccine, but should speak with their health care provider first to determine the best choice on a case-by-case basis. Similarly, people with a history of severe allergies are ok to get the vaccine as well, though they should be monitored for 30 minutes afterwards, instead of the usual 15. The exception to this is anyone who has an allergy specifically to ingredients in the vaccine itself.

People who actively have COVID-19 should wait to get the vaccine until all their symptoms have subsided and 10 days after their quarantine ends. In addition, it's important to wait 14 days after getting another vaccine before getting the COVID-19 shot.

Chan also addressed several unfounded theories that have gained traction on the internet, such as that the vaccine is actually injecting a microchip into a person's body.

"There's no technology that exists to put microchips in vaccines," Chan explained.

The vaccine cannot alter a person's DNA, either, Chan said. The RNA used to create the vaccine never even come into contact with a person's DNA, which lives inside the nucleus of a cell. It also cannot cause a person to have a false positive test result, since the test looks for a different virus than the RNA fragments used to make the vaccine.

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