The Middletown Press (Middletown, CT)
COVID panel seeking money, plan for vaccine distribution
Gov. Ned Lamont’s COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Group is scrambling to find money and formulate plans for how to distribute vaccines, with Pfizer and BioNTech filing Friday for Food & Drug Administration emergency authorization of its candidate and Moderna close to doing the same.
Pfizer has said it has the capability to distribute 50 million vaccines in the United States this year, and 1.3 billion in 2021.
“We haven’t got a ton of money for this process yet,” Acting Public Health Commissioner Dr. Deidre Gifford said, recently. “We are holding out hope for more. ... There is a little bit of money at CDC we anticipate being allocated out to states in the coming weeks, but it’s not really adequate to the task — I think most states agree.”
Many details remain to be worked out on who in Connecticut will get the earliest vaccines, how they will get them and how an eager state will learn about vaccine options. Gifford, co-chair of the advisory group, suggested at a regularly scheduled meeting Thursday night that the panel quicken its pace.
“We’re not doing holiday parties this year, so maybe our evenings will be more free for committee meetings,” said Gifford.
She cited the urgency of sending recommendations to Lamont’s office and of finding money for the program.
Lamton told Hearst Connecticut he is less focused on the money, have spoken with the Biden and Trump task forces and with Sens. Chris Murphy and Richard Blumenthal about federal funding to administer the vaccines, now that the state’s $ 1.4 billion allocation from the spring for all coronavirus expenses is running out.
“Look, I’m not going to shortchange vaccinations, not to mention testing and track and trace,” Lamont said Friday, when asked about Gifford’s concerns over lack of funding.
“But in the meantime I’ve got a rainy day fund, we would make a priority of public health and making sure we didn’t shortchange anyone in making sure we get those vaccinations out to people when they’re available,” he added.
The challenges on distrubtion of the vaccines remain, however, with the Pfizer vaccine must be stored frozen at temperatures colder than 90 degrees below zero Fahrenheit. A state Department of Public Health survey determined that 10 Connecticut hospitals currently have the “ultracold” freezers necessary to store the vaccines.
That’s just one hurdle of several that members of the advisory group have dis
cussed.
The group comprises a main advisory panel of 20 members, plus another 60 people in three subgroups, each representing a different constituency. An allocation subgroup has suggested the first vaccines go to hospital staff assigned to COVID-19 wards; intensive care units and emergency rooms; staff at nursing homes and assisted-living centers; ambulance crews; community health centers; home health aids; and dentists.
One subcommittee chair raised the prospect of having to prioritize the distribution of as few as 30,000 vaccines in the first shipments to arrive.
The group is attempting to craft a plan amid the uncertainties of the timing for FDA approval. AstraZeneca and Johnson & Johnson also have advanced clinical trials of vaccine candidates underway.
Issues include getting
vaccines to the right sites, scheduling patients, communicating the program both widely and to targeted groups, and paying for it all — though the vaccines themselves have been purchased by the federal government under the $ 12 billion Operation Warp Speed.
With the vaccines administered in two installments three weeks apart, recipients will have to schedule return visits for follow-up shots — and to remember those second appointments on which their health could depend. The advisory group expects hospitals and clinics to receive the follow-up doses in separate shipments after the first.
State Sen. Heather Somers, R-Groton, suggested prompting vaccine recipients though text messages in addition to reminder cards they will receive, but she did not detail any work by the communications subcommittee she co-chairs in iden
tifying potential platforms to do so, or what they might cost.
Gifford added the possibility exists that privatesector companies could step up, as the case with Apple and Google in developing a COVID Alert CT app to warn people if they have had close proximity to anyone who has contracted the virus. The app has had “fantastic uptake” in Connecticut in her words, with nearly 700,000 people having signed up.
As for the shipments, Pfizer and partner BioNTech have designed containers that can keep vials at the correct temperatures for up to 15 days if dry ice is replenished at intervals by trained staff.
“Hospital systems that are part of a network have indicated ... their ability to move the vaccine among their sites to manage the process to vaccinate their staff,” Department of Public
Health spokesman Av Harris said in an email. “Several additional hospitals have indicated intent to purchase ultra cold storage. ... Planning is underway with all of the hospitals to further work through access to cold storage.”
Given its exacting coldstorage requirements, Pfizer will ship vaccines directly to hospitals. Moderna will distribute its vaccine, stored at temperatures within the ranges of normal freezers, through McKesson to pharmacies including CVS, Walgreens and other vaccination providers.
As the shipments ramp up, Somers’ communication subgroup must allay concerns some people might have for getting injected with a vaccine that will have had only limited clinical results on safety and side effects.
Speaking recently to members of the Connecticut Retail Merchants Association, Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said he and his family would willingly take any vaccines approved by the FDA, whenever their turns came up for the drug.
Lamont, at the same online meeting, indicated his willingness to direct money from Connecticut’s budget reserve fund to fill any gaps in federal vaccine funding — though the $3 billion in the fund is expected to be needed to fill state budget gaps.
“I think the whole process, every step of the way, has cost to it,” said Richard Martinello, medical director of infection prevention for Yale New Haven Health, and a COVID-19 Vaccine Advisory Group member. “What is not clear right now — at least that I am aware — is what will be reimbursed.”