Massachusetts initially wanted to get vaccines directly from Pfizer and Moderna
"We were concerned about how the federal government was going to allocate the vaccine."
The federal government has been in charge of the process of allocating and distributing millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses across the country.
But with vaccines being developed and manufactured in right here in Massachusetts, state officials initially attempted to go straight to the source.
In an interview published Sunday, Massachusetts Health and Human Services Secretary Marylou Sudders told CommonWealth Magazine that the administration initially tried to contract directly with Pfizer and Moderna, the makers of the two COVID-19 vaccines that have been approved in the United States, amid concerns about how the federal government would allocate doses.
“We actually tried in Massachusetts to get, sort of, a position in with Pfizer and Moderna,” Sudders said, adding that “we were informed that the federal government had basically bought all the vaccine” and effectively had the right of first refusal.
According to the federal Department of Health and Human Services, the government has agreed to purchases a combined 400 million vaccine doses from Pfizer and Moderna to distribute across the country. However, before that process was clear, Sudders said Massachusetts looked to buy doses directly from Pfizer and Moderna, both of which have manufacturing plants in the Bay State.
“Initially, we were concerned about how the federal government was going to allocate the vaccine,” Sudders told Commonwealth. “Initially we were hearing, you know, complicated formulas.”
The federally led vaccine rollout comes after states competed against each other and President Donald Trump’s administration for protective gear and medical equipment during the early stages of the pandemic.
Sudders said that she and Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker had argued that the vaccine should be distributed to states based simply on their population, which was ultimately what federal officials settled on.
Massachusetts had expected to receive a total of 300,000 doses by the end of December to begin vaccinating health care workers, staff and residents at nursing homes, first responders, and people in homeless shelters and prisons.
However, earlier this month, Massachusetts and other states saw their allocations reduced without explanation by the federal government by upwards of 20 percent.
“We’re certainly frustrated,” Baker told reporters at the time.
Still, officials stressed that they didn’t expect the change to have any long-term effects on the timing of the state’s vaccine rollout plan. Leaders of the federal vaccine distribution effort eventually pinned the blame for the reduced allotment on an administrative mistake.
“I can accept that, because this is the beginning of a rollout of a vaccine,” Sudders told CommonWealth. “We’re gonna be vaccinating … about 5.8 [to] 6 million people [in Massachusetts]. We’re going to have our own lumpy-bumpy moments in rolling out the vaccine.”
Despite being a self-described “worrier” by nature, Sudder noted Sunday that she’s now hopeful “for the first time” since the pandemic began due to the increasing availability of the vaccines.
“I truly have hope,” Sudders said.
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