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UPDATE: Ochsner LSU Health will still be continuing with some vaccinations. A follow up release to KEEL News said:

"Ochsner LSU Health is continuing vaccinations as scheduled at our Kings Hwy and St. Mary Medical Center campuses.” 

ORIGINAL STORY: LSU Health Shreveport released an urgent announcement this afternoon, they're out of COVID-19 vaccine.

In their release, they said:

"LSU Health Shreveport has depleted their allocated vaccine supply effective today. We are hopeful our vaccine allocation will increase in the near future.

Individuals who had an appointment to receive the vaccine tomorrow or next week will be notified via email of their rescheduled appointment.

Individuals who have already received their first vaccine will be able to receive their second vaccination at the same location where they received their original vaccine. Individuals will be notified by email of their appointment time to receive their second vaccine.

LSU Health Shreveport will provide an update as quickly as possible on vaccine availability"

The State of Louisiana has been slowly rolling out the vaccine, which much like the rest of the country, has drawn the ire of medical experts and business leaders. The CDC even moved to open vaccines up to more of the population to kickstart the speed of vaccine rollouts. However Louisiana said they would not take part in that expansion, likely because of what we saw today in Shreveport.

The issue appears to be the State of Louisiana's expectations of future vaccine shipments. This week, the state had administered less than 50% of their vaccine stockpile, while planning to hold onto a large amount of that vaccine. The blame from the state goes to the supply they could see in three to four weeks.

What this comes down to is that the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are both two dose vaccines, and the state seems to be holding onto the second doses for those who have started treatment.

This is an issue that both former FDA Chief Dr. Scott Gottlieb, and President-Elect Joe Biden have taken issue with. Both have said that state's and healthcare providers should not be holding back vaccine supply, and should be using all available vaccines to initiate treatment for as many people as possible, and use the coming supply for second shots.

Coming supply shipments that will be bigger, and faster, than the shipments already received. The two companies, Pfizer and Moderna, have been scaling up their production to unheard of levels, and will be producing billions (yes, with a B) this year. But right now, it appears that states like Louisiana are holding stockpile like they will not get more vaccine in the next couple of weeks. Acting like Pfizer and Moderna just stopped producing vaccine.

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