County’s vaccine allotment unknown
An advisory panel will decide today whether or not to endorse the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s plan to grant emergency-use authorization for Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine.
The Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee is expected to make a recommendation for emergency-use authorization, allowing distribution of the vaccine to begin. How many doses Garland County will get from the state’s initial distribution is unknown, local officials said Wednesday.
The Arkansas Department of Health has said the state expects to receive 25,000 doses from the initial allotment of Pfizer’s messenger RNA-based vaccine. The share going to Garland County is unknown.
“It’s going to be a small amount,” Garland County Office of Emergency Management Director Bo Robertson said. “Some hospitals may get more than others. Some hospitals, conceivably, could get nothing. There’s a lot of unknowns.”
Robertson said he has been told the vaccine will be given to hospitals with the capability to store doses at the required temperature of minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit.
“My understanding is the hospitals that have the ability to cold store it will be given
a certain amount,” he said. “It’s the job of the pharmacies to deliver these doses to the other hospitals in the state. What I don’t know is how much we’re going to be getting. I don’t think anybody knows that yet. If they do, I’m not seeing or hearing it.
“The hospitals that have that capacity, most all of those are going to be around Little Rock. The hospitals that can store it through a main office will be supplied through that avenue. The more rural hospitals will be receiving their shipments from the pharmacy strike teams.”
Dr. Gene Shelby, the county’s health officer, said the vaccine shouldn’t be viewed as a panacea, at least not until it can be distributed more widely. The Health Department said it will follow the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendation to first make the vaccine available to front line health care workers and nursing home residents and staff.
“I think eventually the vaccine will end the pandemic, but it’s not going to be real soon,” Shelby said. “It will probably be the summer before we get widespread availability and vaccinate the majority of the people who need it.”
Shelby said he isn’t among the tier of health care workers who have been prioritized for vaccination, but he said he’ll get vaccinated as soon as he can.
“Unfortunately, over the last 15 to 20 years there’s been a lot of negative talk about vaccines in general,” he said. “I think you have to emphasize the fact that these vaccines have been tested. They wouldn’t be approved by the
FDA unless they were proven to be safe and effective. I think we have to educate people about the process of developing and testing vaccines.”
County Judge Darryl Mahoney, county government’s chief executive, said he’d make an overt display of his inoculation if it eases misgivings his constituency has about the vaccine’s safety or effectiveness.
“I’ve never even taken the flu vaccine, however, if the residents of Garland County would feel more comfortable with me taking (the COVID-19 vaccine), I surely would,” he said. “Whatever makes them comfortable, I will do it. I have no fear of it. Everything I’ve read said it’s probably more effective than any vaccine we’ve had in a long time.
“If it would make our residents feel better to where they would take it, I’ll stand right in line with them.”
Pfizer’s vaccine, and the other messenger RNA- based vaccine developed by Moderna, requires two doses. The Health Department said it wouldn’t divide the initial distribution of 25,000 Pfizer doses into two rounds. They would be given to 25,000 people. Their second dose would come from subsequent distributions.
“I saw a report that shows you do get a certain amount of immunity from just one (dose),” Shelby said. “It would be good to get the one dose, but it would be better to get the two for further protection.”
Shelby said he doesn’t think the number of people who need to get vaccinated for communities to develop wholesale immunity is as high as the critical mass required by other vaccines.
“For measles, which is even more contagious than
COVID-19, you have to have
90% of the people vaccinated in order to prevent spread,” he said. “I think it’s less than that for coronavirus. I think it’s in the range of 70% in order to get herd immunity.”
Robertson said he would like to see paramedics and other emergency medical services workers included in the group that will receive the first vaccinations.
“In my opinion, the hospitals need to be taken care of, then the nursing homes,” he said. “Then a close third would be our EMS providers. They’re going back and forth from the emergency rooms to the nursing homes. They’re doing the transport. I would love to get them simultaneously if at all possible.”