By Elaine Carlson

On their Official Website the New Mexico Department of Health claims that as of Monday March 22 they have given out 862,879 doses of vaccine to 32% of eligible residents (people over 16) and 23.6% have gotten both doses. And that in the seven days before 3/22 they gave out 97,188 doses.

I don't see how it is good news that after over a year into this huge health crisis that 78% of eligible residents have not gotten even one dose of the vaccine.

Yesterday NM DOH contacted me to tell me "Moderna vaccine is now available at a location near you, and sign-up is on a first-come, first serve basis."

I was disappointed after I logged in to see their message, "Unfortunately there are no more initial dose appointments at this time." This is the sixth time the NM DOH sent me their "now available" message only to get their "Unfortunately" message after I logged on.

I registered near the beginning of the process on the same day I got a shingles shot. The pharmacist explained how to register. He also told me to not get any shots for 18 days. I guess if something goes wrong he doesn't want the doctors to have to lose time trying to decide if I got a bad reaction from the Shingles or the Corona Virus Vaccine.

Of course the people in the NM DOH have put in a lot of effort into distributing the vaccine. But we must realize they have been doing that job by operating a game of musical chairs. Or they are conducting a lottery in which the prize is an appointment to get a shot.

I think it is likely to say the operate on a "first come, first served basis" means that people only have ten minutes to answer their message to have any chance of getting an appointment.

State run lotteries operate under rules that say they have to disclose the information about how many tickets they sell and the chances that any one particular person could win — that is people can find out the odds.

I think it would be nice if every time the NM DOH sends out the notice of appointments opening up they would tell the numbers of how many appointments there will be and how many people they are sending the message to. I don't imagine people who want a vaccine are any less likely to want to know the odds than the people who buy a lottery ticket because they want a chance to strike it rich.

It wouldn't be fair to criticize NM DOH for not vaccinating more people or for the long waits. They do not have enough vaccine. Maybe the situation will begin to change soon because the US government has bought more vaccine. But purchasing the needed supplies has not been a simple or straight forward process.

In December 2020 hhs.gov made two announcements.

On December 11 they said, "The Trump Administration, through the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Defense (DOD), will purchase an additional 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer." And,

"Under the terms of the agreement, Pfizer will deliver at least 70 million doses by June 30, 2021, with the balance of the 100 million doses to be delivered no later than July 31, 2021."

On December 23 that site reported that also on December 11, "US government buys another 100 million doses of Moderna vaccine." And that, "The expanded order would ensure continuous vaccine delivery through the end of June 2021, at a total cost of $3.2 billion, the Trump administration said."

After the January Inauguration the new administration also made some purchases.

Politico reported on March 19, 2021 that the Biden Administration entered into contracts "for the acquisition of 138 million doses against covid-19 produced by the pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Janssen, whose agreements had been announced a few days ago by the then Minister of Health Eduardo Pazuello."

I was a little confused while I was reading the Politico article. If the prior administration bought 200 million doses why did the new administration think they had to go out and buy another 138 million doses?

The article for the purchase of the Moderna Vaccine has right in the headline the statement that the US government made the purchase. But the text says the government "will" buy the vaccine "if authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use."

While I was reading, I got even more confused because I thought the Moderna Vaccine had already been cleared by the FDA and was being used. So I went back to read (or reread) more and saw that the vaccine Moderna wanted to sell us was mRNA-1273. And "If authorized by the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use as outline in agency/guidance, doses of the vaccine will begin shipping immediately."

Two conclusions are obvious. First that Moderna wanted to sell the Trump Administration a different vaccine than the one they sold to us before and second the FDA did not give their approval. So, it follows that there never was a contract so the doses didn't "begin shipping immediately."

But things went differently with Pfizer. "On Dec. 11 the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) authorized the vaccine for emergency use and doses began shipping immediately."

This has been a rough year but maybe there is some room for optimism. When the US government gets the vaccines they ordered they can start sending it on to the states. Then maybe the NM DOH will get enough vaccines to get the unvaccinated population way below 78% and to decrease the waiting time.

Let's hope that Pfizer significantly beats their contract deadlines to deliver "at least 70 millions doses by June 30" and the 30 million doses" by July 31, 2021.