Your shot at a COVID vaccine in North Carolina could be months away, state says
It will likely be spring before there’s enough COVID-19 vaccine available in North Carolina that anyone in the state who wants it can get it, state public health officials said Thursday.
The state expects to receive 85,800 doses of the Pfizer vaccine next week and distribute it to front-line workers in about half of the state’s hospitals. Beyond that, the state hasn’t been told how much vaccine to expect in the second week or beyond, says Dr. Mandy Cohen, the Secretary of Health and Human Services.
“We’re talking about limited supplies at first, and so we don’t really know yet what the time sequence is going to be in terms of us having vaccine that is more widely available to the general public,” Cohen said at a press conference Thursday. “It is not going to be in the early part of 2021.”
The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday authorized use of the Pfizer vaccine on an emergency basis. The company and its partner BioNTech announced last month that the vaccine was more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19 among people who took part in a clinical trial.
People will not be able to receive the vaccine until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issues guidance for what groups should get it and under what circumstances. A CDC committee is expected to hammer out those guidelines over the weekend, which would make the vaccine available next week.
A tiny first step
The government’s first authorization to use a vaccine against COVID-19 comes as the number of new cases, hospitalizations and deaths from coronavirus climb in North Carolina and across the country. Another 5,556 new cases and 53 deaths were reported in the state Thursday, and the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 reached a new high of 2,444.
The initial allocation of 85,800 doses is a tiny first step in a state with more than 10 million residents. The state’s plan for distributing the vaccine gives top priority to hospital employees who work with and around COVID-19 patients, including custodial staff.
Cohen said the state expects to receive weekly vaccine shipments but doesn’t know yet how large they’ll be.
The Pfizer vaccine is the first of two expected to receive approval from the FDA. The second, developed by Moderna, could be approved for emergency use later this month. The Moderna vaccine was found to be 94.5% effective in clinical trials, according to the company.
Cohen said once the Moderna vaccine has been approved, the federal government will begin working with Walgreens and CVS pharmacies to distribute it to nursing homes and other long-term care facilities in the state.
To work, both vaccines need to be administered twice — 21 days apart for Pfizer and 28 days for Moderna. Amanda Fuller Moore, the state Division of Public Health pharmacist, said the initial 85,800 doses next week will all be first doses, and that federal officials have committed to providing the second shots on time.
“We see that those second doses are there in line,” Fuller Moore said. “So we feel confident that every two weeks we will be receiving the follow-up doses.”
The Pfizer vaccine must be stored at ultra-cold temperatures until it’s ready to be administered. Earlier this week, the state Department of Health and Human Services released a list of 11 individual hospitals and hospital systems that have the freezers needed to store it. The list, which in the Triangle included Duke University Health System and UNC Health system, comprised sites that will receive the first shipments of the vaccine in advance of the final federal authorization to begin using it.
On Thursday, the state said another 42 hospitals will begin receiving shipments packed in dry ice after the CDC gives the OK. These include WakeMed hospitals in Raleigh and Cary.
Cohen said the state hopes to make the vaccine available to additional hospitals in the second week, but can’t say for sure.
“We don’t know how much vaccine we’re going to be receiving from the federal government in week 2,” Cohen said. “So it’s really hard for us to project out exact timelines at this point.”
COVID-19 vaccination is not mandatory
While many eagerly await the vaccine, it’s not clear how much of the population will ultimately want it. An Elon University Poll released Thursday found that 60% of the 1,390 North Carolinians surveyed either would not take the coronavirus vaccine or are not sure.
Aversion to vaccination is not unique to this COVID-19. Less than 52% of children and adults in the United States were vaccinated against the flu last year, despite the wide availability of a flu vaccine, according to the CDC.
Cohen acknowledged that many people are wary of a new vaccine developed for a deadly disease in record time, and said the state plans a campaign to persuade people that vaccination is a good idea. She sought to head off one concern Thursday by noting that the COVID-19 vaccines do not contain any coronavirus.
“The vaccine imitates the infection so that our body thinks that the virus is attacking,” she said. “This creates the antibody defense we need to fight off COVID-19 if and when the real germ attacks.”
Some of the hospitals that are among the first to receive the vaccine say it will be strongly recommended for employees but not mandatory.
They include Duke Health, with three hospitals in the Triangle. Gail Shulby, who has led the vaccination planning effort at Duke, said while the vaccine is promising not enough is known about the long-term safety and effectiveness.
“We don’t feel like we have information sufficient to make this a requirement,” she said.
UNC Health has taken a similar position for its dozen hospitals in North Carolina, including the main medical center in Chapel Hill and Rex in Raleigh.
“Taking the vaccine will not be mandatory,” Wesley Burks, UNC Health’s CEO, said in a video message to employees. “But we hope you will choose to be vaccinated and slow the spread of this virus which has caused a level of devastation and loss you know all too well.
“As CEO of UNC Health and dean of the UNC School of Medicine, I will be vaccinated for COVID-19 as soon as I am eligible.”
This story was originally published December 10, 2020 at 1:29 PM.
