WASHINGTON — A Pentagon system set up for states to keep track of coronavirus vaccines had outdated, inaccurate projections for deliveries that misled governors into expecting they would receive far more doses than will arrive in the coming days, a federal official told McClatchy.
The system, called Tiberius, went live months ago in order for state and local officials to prepare for the day that the Food and Drug Administration authorized a coronavirus vaccine, with projections that were intended to help states practice using the complex system.
But when the FDA issued its first emergency use authorization for a vaccine on Friday, the outdated projections in the Defense Department software remained in place.
“Tiberius has been online for a couple of months, and it’s where a lot of the exercise and planning modules were where they could see potential allocations,” the official said on condition of anonymity. “The problem is that they kept those exercising and planning modules in there, and that’s what people were looking at as late as last week.”
As state government officials went in to order additional doses in recent days — through a separate program called VTrckS, run by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — they discovered that the actual doses they would be receiving were far lower.
Local officials expressed confusion and disappointment on Thursday as they discovered the discrepancy, with states nationwide — including California, Washington, Kansas, Missouri and Florida — asking for an explanation from the federal government.
Officials with Operation Warp Speed, the federal program responsible for overseeing the development and distribution of coronavirus vaccines, denied that the allocation numbers were ever cut, but did not explain why states had been left with the impression that they would be getting more shipments next week than they are.
“Operation Warp Speed allocation numbers locked in with states have not been changed or adjusted,” said a Health and Human Services spokesperson. “Allocations will depend on the amount of vaccine available. Each week, OWS will let states know how many doses are available to order against for the coming week. Shipments to a jurisdiction may arrive over several days.
“Operation Warp Speed remains on track to allocate enough vaccine for about 20 million Americans to receive their first doses before the end of the month,” the HHS spokesperson stated. “Reports that jurisdictions’ allocations are being reduced are incorrect.”
The first COVID-19 vaccine made available to Americans, produced by Pfizer, received an emergency use authorization on Friday, while a second vaccine produced by Moderna was just recommended for emergency use by an FDA panel on Thursday.
In a statement, Pfizer said that the company was “not having any production issues with our COVID-19 vaccine,” and that no shipments containing the vaccine are on hold or delayed.
“Going forward, the Tiberius numbers should be correct. The problem is, when they looked at them last week, and when they got to ordering them now, they were different,” the federal official explained. “Everything in Tiberius was for planning purposes, not official allocations – and they clearly did not make that clear to states.”
