Vaccine providers in Pennsylvania could be short 55,000 first doses of Moderna’s covid-19 vaccine in the coming weeks after a “perfect storm of circumstances” meant some providers spent weeks giving out dedicated second-dose shots as first doses, health department leaders said Wednesday.

In addition, 30,000 to 60,000 second-dose appointments could be pushed back one to two weeks, said Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam.

“We discovered that some providers inadvertently used the Moderna vaccine shipped to them intended as second doses as first doses,” Beam said, assuring residents they will receive their second dose within the maximum 42 days after the first dose as recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

She said vaccine providers had requested roughly 200,000 second-dose Moderna vaccines.

“This was a structural issue that actually began in January,” Beam said. “It was an issue that compounded week after week. This is the week where we’ve addressed it because it has become so significant that … the amount of requested second doses of Moderna was almost equal to our entire allocation of Moderna.”

Beam declined to name the provider – or providers – that misused the dedicated second doses.

“We are not here to have blame placed anywhere,” she said, noting that “over next two to three weeks, we will have corrected for it.”

The first and second doses of the vaccine are the same, so the concern lies only in scheduling and supply and not necessarily health risks, said Dr. Amesh Adalja, a Pittsburgh-based infectious disease expert.

He pointed to the wiggle room in the timeframe for getting a second dose, and he indicated the mishap isn’t a dire situation.

“I think it’s critical to get first doses into people and, given the flexibility on timing of the second dose, this event is not a major issue,” he said.

Barry Ciccocioppo, the health department’s press secretary for covid-related issues, said the department’s messaging to vaccine providers should have been clearer, particularly surrounding the notion that they should not hold back half of the doses they receive.

“Say a provider got two boxes of vaccine,” he said as an example. “They’re hearing from the state, ‘Don’t hold back doses, don’t hold back doses,’ but they didn’t realize that one of those boxes was specifically intended for your second-dose appointments.

“We meant don’t hold back first doses,” he said. “We should have been clearer on distinguishing between first doses and second doses.”

Gov. Tom Wolf said the misstep should not undermine confidence in the system, and he acknowledged that problems will be part of the process.

“Am I confident that we solved all the problems? No, I’m pretty confident we have not,” he said. “There will continue to be problems and we will continue to look for ways – and find ways – to make the system work even better.”

What remains important, he said, is getting as many people fully vaccinated as possible. That means making sure that those second doses are guaranteed for everyone who received the first. He called the health department’s remedy – stretching out the time between some first and second doses – “a good solution for a problem that arose.”

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