Biden to visit Mich. vaccine plant as winter throws a curve

WASHINGTON (AP) — Extreme winter weather is dealing the first major setback to the Biden administration's planned swift rollout of coronavirus vaccines just as the national vaccination campaign was hitting its stride.

The disruptions caused by frigid temperatures, snow and ice left the White House scrambling to work with states to make up “lost ground” even as President Joe Biden was set to visit a Pfizer vaccine manufacturing plant near Kalamazoo, Michigan. The president's trip itself had been pushed back a day to Friday due to wintry weather in the nation’s capital.

The president was set to meet with workers at the plant who are producing one of the two federally-approved COVID-19 shots. According to the CDC, the two-dose Pfizer vaccine has been administered about 30 million times since it received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration on Dec. 11.

From Texas to New England, bad weather has forced many injection sites to close and held up shipments of needed doses.

The U.S. had administered an average of 1.7 million doses per day in the week that ended on Tuesday, evidence that the pace of the vaccination program was picking up. The magnitude of the weather's impact was not immediately clear because of reporting lags in vaccination data maintained by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention but it was expected to be significant.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said the White House was closely monitoring the weather’s impact on vaccine deliveries and working with manufacturers, shipping companies and states to speed their distribution.

The delays were so severe that Massachusetts Gov. Charlie Baker on Thursday suggested he would explore sending his state’s national guard to collect doses from icebound shipping hubs...