STATES BLAST TRUMP FOR DECEPTION IN RELEASE OF VACCINES

The governors Oregon, California and New York accused the Trump administration of deception in pledging to immediately distribute millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses from a stockpile that the US health secretary has since acknowledged does not exist, Peter Szekely and Steve Gorman reported for Reuters.

Confusion over a vaccine supply windfall that was promised to governors but failed to materialize arose as scattered shortages emerged on the frontlines of the most ambitious and complex immunization campaign in U.S. history, prompting at least one large New York healthcare system to cancel a slew of inoculation appointments.

Just 10.6 million Americans have received a shot since federal regulators last month granted emergency approval to two vaccines, one from Pfizer Inc and BioNTech and a second from Moderna Inc, the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported.

The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines each require an initial dose and a booster shot given about three weeks apart.

That tally falls far short of the 20 million vaccinations the Trump administration had promised to administer by the end of 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic raged virtually unchecked with ever-increasing record numbers of infections, hospitalizations and deaths.

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