WASHINGTON — The federal government plans to shift the way vaccine doses are allocated among states, allowing some governors to turn down doses they don't need or want, as President Joe Biden pushes to get at least one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine to 70 percent of adults by July 4.
Administration officials told governors on Tuesday that if a state doesn’t want all of its allocation, then the vaccines will go into a pool and be redistributed to states that need them, a senior administration official said. For weeks, some states, like West Virginia, have been reporting unused doses as demand wanes, while others, like Michigan, have clamored for more.
“It's really just an indication that we’re at a different phase now then we were even a couple of weeks ago in terms of access to supply, and we want to ensure that we free up unused and unordered doses,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday.