SALEM, ORE. – (AP, KONP staff) Oregon Gov. Kate Brown said the COVID-19 vaccine stockpile Operation Warp Speed pledged to release to states next week does not exist, calling it a “deception on a national scale” by the Trump administration.
On Friday morning, the Democrat tweeted that she was told by General Gustave Perna, who leads the “Operation Warp Speed” federal vaccine effort, that states will not be receiving increased shipments of vaccines from the national stockpile next week “because there is no federal reserve of doses.”
The New York Times reports that Trump administration officials clarified Friday that the existing stockpile would only go toward giving second doses to people who had already received the vaccine, and not to new groups of people.
Gov. Jay Inslee responded to the news Friday tweeting, “Governors were told repeatedly there was a strategic reserve of vaccines, and this week, the American people were told it’d be released to increase supply of vaccine. It appears now that no reserve exists. The Trump admin. must answer immediately for this deception.”
During a press briefing Wednesday, Washington State health officials announced that the next phase of the vaccine rollout will be on an accelerated timeline. Clallam County Health Officer Dr. Allison Berry told KONP that her understanding was that the news only applies to a large increase in distribution that was promised, and not to the regular shipments of doses that have been arriving.
It is currently unknown how Friday’s news about vaccine reserves will impact our state’s plan to speed up vaccinations.