Reality Sets In

BlockClubChicago reports that local officials are expressing disappointment that Chicago will be receiving fewer doses of the Pfizer vaccine than originally anticipated:

CHICAGO — Chicago and Illinois will only get about half the amount of Pfizer vaccine doses they expected to get in coming weeks, Gov. JB Pritzker said Wednesday.

The same is true for cities and states across the nation, as the federal government has slashed what it will distribute by nearly half for the next two weeks, Pritzker said.

Federal officials initially told state leaders they would send out nearly 8 million doses of the vaccine next week, distributing them to cities and states based on their population sizes, Pritzker said.

“I’m disappointed to learn … that per the direction of Operation Warp Speed’s General Perna, that estimate was tightened significantly down to 4.3 million doses shipped nationally next week,” Pritzker said during a Wednesday coronavirus update.

Similar cuts will be made in the week after that: The federal government had estimated it’d ship out 8.8 million doses, but officials now say they’ll only send 4.3 million doses to cities and states, Pritzker said.

That’s completely consistent with Pfizer’s announcement of about ten days ago that it had fewer doses of the vaccine on hand than it had previously indicated. I suspect that we will be seeing more reality checks as this process moves forward.