California is making plans for how it might distribute a COVID-19 vaccine
SAN FRANCISCO - California is making plans for how it might distribute a COVID vaccine when it becomes available, but the distribution comes with big challenges.
Pfizer announced this week that it could have as many as 40 million doses of its coronavirus vaccine ready by the end of the year if it receives emergency authorization from the FDA. That has raised questions about the logistics of getting it to millions of people.
The military has been tapped to help with Operation Warp Speed. In Southern California, Vandenberg Air Force Base announced it expects to get about 10,000 doses in December.
"We are going to start with our healthcare workers. We're looking at folks who manage critical infrastructure. We are going to look at certainly military members," said Anthony Mastalir, the Air Force 30th Space Wing Commander.
The Pfizer vaccine requires storage at extremely cold sub-70-degree Celsius temperatures.
"It has to be maintained at temperatures that very few freezers can get to, and certainly nothing like a home freezer. And even in hospitals, they might not have freezers or adequate numbers of freezers that can contain this," said Dr. John Swartzberg, clinical professor emeritus of infectious diseases and vaccinology at UC Berkeley.
Research labs and hospitals such as UCSF, UC Davis and UC Santa Cruz say they have such freezers, but not local clinics or community sites.
"Many large academic hospitals and labs have these kind of ultra-cold freezers, the negative 70 degrees Celsius. I even have one in my lab for research...But they're not going to be in Walgreens or CVS," said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, a UCSF Professor of Infectious Diseases.
Another challenge is that the Pfizer vaccine requires a second dose after 21 days.
"Talking about immunizing millions of people and the fact they need two doses, doubles the amount of logistical issues," said Swartzberg.
Sutter Health reportedly has 15 freezers that can each store tens of thousands of doses and is looking to acquire more, according to the Sacramento Bee.
There's also the question of whether people in the public will decide to get the vaccine.
"Anything that can make us healthy and protect everybody else, I'd be willing to take," said Ben Kona of Concord.
"I'd rather stay home than take a shot that may or may not work. I'll wait," said Wendy Merchant of Canyon.
Pfizer is one of a number of COVID vaccine candidates in Phase III trials. Other potential vaccines are being tested by Moderna, AstraZeneca, and Johnson and Johnson. Moderna is set to release their data next month, raising another question for officials.
"It does make things tricky for these other studies, if one comes out clearly ahead, you know, it'd be really hard to tell everyone that they shouldn't go out and get the vaccine," said Dr. Jeff Pothof, chief quality officer at the University of Wisconsin.