AUGUSTA – Maine CDC Director Dr. Nirav Shah addressed rumors that the CDC is holding on to COVID-19 vaccine doses.
In Jan 11’s briefing, Dr. Shah said there’s a myth that in other states there’s a large number of the vaccine sitting on the shelves.
He said of the more than 80,000 vaccine doses the state has received so far, almost all of them have already been sent out to hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and long-term care facilities.
“I want to be very clear in Maine what is happening is that doses are not sitting on the shelves. Anywhere between 82% and 93% of every dose that has come into the state of Maine has been put into someone’s arm, ” Shah said.
He added doses come in and are immediately allocated directly to hospitals and then the CDC works with the hospitals to get them into arms as quickly as possible.