MADISON, Wis. – After Wisconsin was shorted nearly 15,000 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines by the federal government last week, you may be wondering how the process works.

Over the weekend, federal officials took the blame.

“It was my fault,” Gen. Gustave Perna, Chief Operating Officer of Operation Warp Speed, said on Saturday. “I gave guidance. I am the one that approved the forecast sheets. I am the one that approved the allocations.”

On Sunday, Dr. Moncef Slaoui, who is the Chief Scientific Adviser of Operation Warp Speed, follow suit.

“We all made the error or mistake of assuming the vaccine that's actually produced and being released is already available for shipment, when in fact there's a two days lag,” Slaoui said.

However, Gundersen Health System Dr. Rajiv Naik, who is also part of the state allocation committee, said when you look at the big picture—Wisconsin being shorted won't make a huge difference.

“What we want to do is change the trajectory of this pandemic curve, and in order to do that we need lots of vaccines widely distributed and that's going to take time anyways,” Naik said. “It's not like we're going to solve this in a week or two weeks.”

Dr. Naik said two big decisions have to be made when it comes to distributing vaccines.

“How much vaccines goes to states is already decided, and that's really going to be as a percentage of population,” Naik said. “After that, the state needs to decide how to allocate vaccine to all of the vaccinating entities.”


Those decisions are made based on three factors.

“What are the ethics? What does the science say? And then, what is the ability to implement that,” Naik said.

With that in mind, where are the vaccinations headed next in Wisconsin?

“It's really important that it goes to not only the urban centers, but also to our rural sites, which is now happening, you know across the state,” Naik said.