WASHINGTON — An Army general in charge of COVID-19 vaccines apologized Saturday for “miscommunication” with states on the number of early doses delivered.
Gen. Gustave Perna’s remarks came a day after a second vaccine was added in the fight against the coronavirus. Governors in more than a dozen states says the federal government has told them next week’s shipment of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine will be less than originally projected.
Army General Gustave Perna, the chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed, takes full responsibility for vaccine miscommunication https://t.co/vIAcxMBIEZ pic.twitter.com/YQd46N2elH
— CBS News (@CBSNews) December 19, 2020
“I want to take personal responsibility for the miscommunication,” he said. “I know that’s not done much these days. But I am responsible. … This is a herculean effort and we are not perfect.”
Perna says the government now is on track to get approximately 20 million doses to states by the first week of January, a combination of the newly approved Moderna vaccine and the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine. He says 2.9 million Pfizer-BioNTech doses have been delivered so far.
The coronavirus has killed more than 313,000 people in the U.S., the highest death toll in the world.
