White House Tells Hospitals To Start Using Up Backlog Of Vaccine

Politico: Biden Covid Adviser Tells Providers To Stop Stockpiling Vaccine 
The Biden administration is advising health care providers across the country against holding back doses of Covid-19 vaccines, amid reports that hospitals are reserving limited supply to ensure that patients receive doses. Andy Slavitt, a senior adviser to the White House's Covid response team, said providers should be confident that there will be a steady supply of doses and that stockpiling "does not need to happen and should not happen." (Ehley, 2/1)

The Hill: Biden Officials Defend Two-Dose Strategy Amid Fears Of Variants 
Top Biden administration health officials made clear Monday that they are not changing strategy to give people only one dose of vaccine instead of two in an effort to speed the process, but at the same time urged health care providers not to be overly cautious in holding second doses in reserve. (Sullivan, 2/1)

CIDRAP: Experts Tout Delaying 2nd COVID Vaccine Dose As US Deaths Mount
Following record COVID-19 deaths in January, several US experts extolled the benefits of vaccinating as many people as possible with one dose of COVID vaccine before ensuring people receive the recommended second dose. ... "The maximum public health benefit would come from giving a single dose to as many people as possible, and following up with a second dose when supply improves," said Neal Halsey, MD, of Johns Hopkins University, in an interview. Halsey and Stanley Plotkin, MD, co-authored a letter in Clinical Infectious Diseases last week explaining how delaying a second dose of vaccine would accelerate the US vaccine rollout. (Soucheray, 2/1)

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin Vaccine Phase Panel Takes Break To Wait For Biden Strategy
The state advisory panel recommending when Wisconsin residents should get the COVID-19 vaccine is pausing work while the Evers administration gathers more information on how President Joe Biden's vaccine strategy will affect the state. The hiatus, which could last weeks, also comes while the distribution of vaccine doses is ramping up; it will likely take months to provide shots to everyone already eligible. Wisconsin is in the middle of distributing vaccine doses to residents in the first and second phase of the state's rollout, which includes frontline workers, teachers and people over the age of 65 — more than 1 million people. (Beck, 2/1)

In related news from Moderna —

NPR: Moderna Increases COVID-19 Vaccine Shipments While Pfizer Lags Behind
The federal government has allocated 5.8 million Moderna doses to states this week, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That's 1.5 million more doses than the 4.3 million the company supplied the previous week — an increase of about 35%. Meanwhile, Pfizer doses increased only slightly over the previous week — 70,000 doses, or less than 2% — for a total just shy of 4.4 million vaccine doses this week. "Yesterday, we announced a 16% increase in supply flowing to states every week for the next three weeks to a minimum of 10 million doses per week. That's good news," said Andy Slavitt, White House adviser on the COVID-19 response, at a Wednesday press briefing. The projections can help states with planning. (Lupkin, 2/1)

The New York Times: Moderna Could Boost Vaccine Supply By Adding Doses To Vials 
U.S. regulators could decide within a few weeks whether to allow Moderna, the developer of one of the two federally authorized Covid-19 vaccines, to increase the number of doses in its vials — which could accelerate the nation’s vaccination rate. Moderna is hoping to raise the number of doses in its vials to as many as 15 from the current 10 doses, a potential 50 percent increase. The proposal reflects the fact that the company has been ramping up production of its vaccine to the point where the final manufacturing stage, when it is bottled, capped and labeled, has emerged as a roadblock to expanding its distribution. (2/2)