VACCINE IN HAND
Khaldun: State’s top doctor receives dose in arm Thursday night
Dr. Joneigh Khaldun, Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS) chief medical executive, was given the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine Thursday night.
Khaldun, who is also an emergency medicine physician at Henry Ford Health System, received the vaccine along with other Henry Ford frontline employees. She has been treating COVID-19 patients in the ER at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit.
Each of the health system’s five hospitals, including including Henry Ford Hospital, Henry Ford Macomb Hospital, Henry Ford Wyandotte Hospital, Henry Ford West Bloomfield Hospital and Henry Ford Allegiance Hospital have received 975 initial doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
Around 2 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine have been shipped across the country this week to hospitals, local health departments, and long- term care facilities. As of Wednesday, Michigan had received 26,325 doses, around 31% of its initial allocation. The state has 297 vaccine provider sites ready to store and administer the vaccine, including 72 hospitals and health departments who will receive initial shipments of the Pfizer vaccine.
Earlier this week, the state’s very first doses were administered to front-line workers at Spectrum Health in Grant Rapids, Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor, Beaumont Health in Southfield, and Mid-Michigan Medical Center in Midland. On Thursday, the first vaccinations were performed on frontline workers at McLaren Northern Michigan, McLaren Greater Lansing, and McLaren Flint hospitals.
Khaldun has said that the goal is to vaccinate 5.4 million Michigan adults, 70% of the state’s adult
many extra doses are available. The FDA and Pfizer also caution that any leftover vaccine from different vials that is smaller than a full dose should not be mixed together , which experts say risks cross- contamination.
“The amount of vaccine remaining in the multidose vial after removal of 5 doses can vary, depending on the type of needles and syringes used,” Sharon Castillo, a spokeswoman for Pfizer, said in a statement.
The Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine is also getting a boost from the White House this week with Vice President Mike Pence expected to receive a vaccination today, live on camera. Second lady Karen Pence and Surgeon General Jerome Adams are expected to be vaccinated as well.
Meanwhi le federal health of f icials said Wednesday they are in talks with Pfizer to purchase tens of millions of additional doses this spring after the drug company said the United States probably would have to wait until summer.
Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said he is “very optimistic” about negotiations in which federal officials are trying to help Pfizer ramp up production to meet the government’s demand for the second quarter of 2021.
“We are working with them to provide them whatever assistance, now that they have identified some of the production challenges,” Azar said at a briefing.
The negotiations come after Pfizer told the Trump administration that other countries have rushed to buy most of the supply that will be available in the second quarter of the year. The federal government turned down an opportunity as recently as October to double its purchase of 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, the first authorized for use in the United States, over disagreements on delivery dates.
Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the division of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said the potential for millions of extra doses is “incredibly good news,” especially in light of the dispute over additional PfizerBioNTech vaccines.
“If vaccine is as good as its been in the trials, it’s a silver lining of the fact that we didn’t get as much of the Pfizer vaccine as we originally could have,” she said.
Federal officials have insisted they have enough doses with other vaccines likely to receive emergency authorization, including the Moderna vaccine, which is expected to be cleared by regulators shortly.
Azar noted that the federal government has been more heavily involved in the development and manufacture of the five other coronavirus vaccines, which accepted government research funding. Pfizer declined the funding.
That made it harder for the federal government to intervene when Pfizer ran into production problems, health officials said.
“Part of our ongoing discussions is to remediate that and to get better visibility into what they are doing, what challenges they are facing, because they made significant commitments to us and others, “Azar said.
Pfizer disputed Azar’s comments, saying through the spokeswoman that it does not “currently have manufacturing” issues and it has been transparent with the federal government on its production and distribution capabilities.
“They have visited our facilities, walked the production lines, and been a part of key decisions that have been made,” said Castillo.
Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Monday that the company could provide an extra 100 million doses in the third quarter of the year and confirmed the negotiations to deliver the additional vaccine sooner.