Storm delay of Moderna vaccine postpones second-dose appointments

Storms that have paralyzed parts of the U.S. delayed shipments of Moderna vaccine to Clark County, resulting in the postponement of second-dose appointments through the end of the week, Southern Nevada Health District officials said Wednesday.

The health district will be setting up a new call center to contact the roughly 4,000 people whose appointments will be delayed and to reschedule them for next week.

The delay should not reduce the effectiveness of the vaccine.

“It’s not going to affect anyone’s immunization because it’s off a week,” district official Greg Cassell said during an online media briefing.

A second dose of Moderna vaccine is intended to be given four weeks after the first. However, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said that six weeks is an acceptable interval.

Shipments of Pfizer vaccine were not delayed and appointments for second doses of Pfizer vaccine are unaffected.

District officials said that receiving vaccine allocations from the federal government a week at a time, and not knowing how much vaccine to anticipate from week to week, have complicated planning efforts.

“We really wish that we had more supply here in the valley at least to be able to absorb those types of supply chain issues,” said Clark County Fire Chief John Steinbeck. “But we get the shipments when they come in, and are not allowed to have any extra standing inventory to absorb these types of situations.”

“The priority was to get the doses out into the community as quickly as possible and deal with fallout if they don’t come,” Steinbeck added.

Last week, the health district reported that it had on hand 1,700 first doses and 8,460 second doses of Moderna vaccine. This week, it reported having zero first doses of Moderna vaccine and 50 second doses.

Next week, the district will administer only second doses of vaccine at clinics at Cashman Center, the Las Vegas Convention Center and its main office.

Meanwhile, University Medical Center also has put off appointments for second doses of Moderna scheduled for Thursday and Friday. The hospital has contacted patients affected by the delay and, when the delayed shipment arrives, will again contact them about rescheduling or getting their second shot on a walk-in basis, said spokesman Scott Kerbs.

In other developments, the health district continued to urge people to cancel vaccine appointments they would not be using to avoid possibly wasting vaccine. The district suggested checking a junk or spam folder for a link sent by the district to cancel unneeded appointments.

The health district has logged 293 wasted doses of vaccine, up from 53 doses a week earlier.

Contact Mary Hynes at mhynes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @MaryHynes1 on Twitter.

Review-Journal staff writer Michael Scott Davidson contributed to this report.