HOFFMAN: RETURN TO NORMALCY DEPENDS ON VACCINE PRODUCTION
There’s still no clear outlook for when life will regain a semblance of normality, but Humboldt County’s health officer says it’s clear that it will depend on how quickly manufacturers can produce and distribute their COVID-19 vaccines.
“We do hope that this vaccine campaign will allow us to get back to normal life,” Humboldt County Health Officer Dr. Ian Hoffman said in a Thursday media availability video, “and what that looks like and sort of how that comes down is still a big question.”
Humboldt County is currently receiving about 1,000 to 2,000 vaccines per week, and is in the process of vaccinating all of the demographics prioritized in Phase 1A of the state’s Vaccinate All 58 campaign: frontline health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities — about 10,000 individuals, Hoffman said.
“You can do that math pretty easily,” Hoffman said. “It’s going to take a little while.”
The county has the capacity to build up its vaccine delivery infrastructure to accommodate receiving five to six times that amount, Hoffman said. That would allow the county to potentially vaccinate everyone throughout the rest of the year.
“It’s really a supply issue,” Hoff man said. “It’s not a delivery issue.”
Where we stand
To date, two COVID-19 vaccines — the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and Moderna vaccine, each requiring two doses — have been granted emergency use authorizations by the U. S. Food and Drug Administration, with three others expected to apply for emergency use authorization later this year.
The U.S. is expected to receive 200 million doses of the PfizerBioNTech COVID-19 vaccine by July 31, which will allow for the vaccination of 100 million people, according to a Dec. 23 Pfizer press release.
Moderna provided an update Monday, stating it has already delivered 18 million doses to the U.S. government. The company expects to deliver 100 million doses to the U. S. by the end of the first quarter of 2021 and 200 million by the end of the second quarter, according to the Monday press release.
The company is expected to produce 600 million doses for global distribution by the end of 2021, though its trying to build up its production infrastructure to potentially produce a billion doses by the end of the year, the release states.
Three other manufacturers — Novavax, AstraZeneca and the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson — have reached one of the last stages of vaccine development, during which latestage, Phase 3, clinical trials are being conducted, before emergency use authorization can be granted.
“There are many, many trials,” Hoffman said. “There are a few that are looking more promising. I don’t think it’s going to be in the next weeks or months, it could be later in the spring or summer before we get another approved vaccine.”
Janssen announced it expects to apply for emergency use authorization by February, with a goal of producing a billion doses globally before the end of the year, according to a press release from the company.
The emergency use authorization process took about a month from application approval for both approved vaccines.
Humboldt County is still working through Phase 1A, Hoffman said, specifically “on getting in folks who are not part of a bigger hospital system through multiple avenues over the course of the next week.”
The next phase
Once frontline health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities have been vaccinated, counties can begin providing vaccines to the populations prioritized in Phase 1B.
The first tier of Phase 1B will prioritize people aged 75 or older and those who are at risk for COVID-19 exposure through working in education, childcare, emergency services, or food and agriculture. The second tier prioritizes people between the ages of 65 and 74; people in congregate settings with an outbreak risk, such as the homeless and the incarcerated; and people who work in sectors at risk of exposure, such as critical manufacturing and transportation and logistics.
“Phase 1B is going to be a much larger group and a much more diverse group of folks so that might look different,” in terms of the avenues through which vaccines will be administered, Hoffman said. “We’re working those details out this week and hope to have a plan in the coming week or two to release to the public how Phase 1B will be started.”
Phase 1C is expected to prioritize people between the ages of 50 and 64; people between the ages of 16 and 49 who have an underlying health risk that makes them more at risk of severe illness from COVID-19; and people who work in sectors with COVID-19 exposure risk, such as water and wastewater, energy, communications and information technology, and financial services, among others.
Eventually anyone who wants a vaccine should be able to get one at no cost.
“The vaccine is being provided for free,” Hoffman said. “Insurances can be billed and ask for reimbursement for it if someone has insurance but you cannot charge someone if they have no insurance.”