Local medical centers are preparing for how they will be distributing the two potential COVID-19 vaccines that are up for Food and Drug Administration approval this month.
Two major drug companies, Pfizer and Moderna, have submitted their vaccines for emergency authorization, which if approved, could begin to be administered by the end of December.
Current estimates project that no more than 20 million doses of each vaccine will be available by the end of 2020. Each vaccine requires two doses, which means that each shot will have to be rationed in the early stages.
Locally, representatives from North Shore Medical Center (NSMC) and Lynn Community Health Center (LCHC) say they are planning to administer the vaccine to high-risk groups first, essential workers and high-risk patients.
“Initially those healthcare workers that are directly caring for COVID-19 positive or COVID-19 suspected patients (will receive the vaccine), and then we will phase the distribution from there as the vaccine becomes more and more available,” said Roxanne Ruppel, NSMC senior vice president of operations.
“It depends on the doses we receive,” she continued. “We will identify departments and practices that will be in the first phase depending on what we receive in terms of the number of doses. Then, as more vaccine becomes available we will continue to phase in additional healthcare workers and then from there, patients who are high risk and more vulnerable and then proceed from there.”
Dr. Kiame Mahaniah, CEO of Lynn Community Health Center, said the center plans to follow the plan that is being devised by the state, which prioritizes essential workers and high-risk patients.
“(The state) would likely identify us as a place to give the vaccine with pretty strong parameters,” said Mahaniah, explaining that Lynn Community Health Center would likely receive a good amount of vaccine initially based on the vast number of people it has been testing throughout the pandemic.
“They’re going to define very clearly which high-risk workers and patients should get it, people in nursing homes. In February or March, we would expect to get a lot of vaccine. We’re also getting ready. We would probably convert our two testing trailers to immunization clinics.”
Both medical centers’ plans align with a recommendation from a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advisory panel, which voted, 13-1, this week to recommend priority be given to healthcare workers and nursing home residents in the first days of any coming vaccination program, when doses are expected to be limited.
Mahaniah said the news that two vaccines could soon become available for distribution — both Pfizer and Moderna have boasted data that claims their vaccines are 94 to 95 percent effective — is exciting and something that the health center has been waiting a long time for.
He said he is not overly concerned about potential side effects from the vaccine, as the drug companies “seem to be making the vaccine with the best standards.
“I’m more concerned with do we have enough and do we have the equipment to store the vaccine safely,” said Mahaniah. “I think you’ll get a large group of people in the beginning that really want it. I think there won’t be enough vaccine for all people who want it.”
Still, he anticipates that up to half of the population will be hesitant about taking a vaccine when it becomes available.
“I do expect a third to about half of people to be very hesitant about it, but in the end, it’s: do you want a shot to have a normal life? Or do you want to continue with social distancing and not being able to see your loved ones,” said Mahaniah. “I think for most people the desire to have a normal life is going to outweigh any concerns they have.”
North Shore Medical Center is working closely with the Mass General/ Brigham system, their colleagues in sister hospitals and state and federal authorities to devise their plan for vaccine distribution, Ruppel said. At the local level, NSMC is developing plans for how phasing will occur at Salem Hospital, she said.
“We feel very confident in the safety of the vaccine,” said Ruppel. “Optimistic is the way I would describe it. We’re eager to receive the vaccine and are getting ready to mobilize as soon as it’s appropriate to do so.
“There’s a lot of reason to be optimistic but at the same time there’s a great deal of work to do to get it out to everyone who needs it and so we’re preparing for that.”
Once distribution moves beyond health care workers, a clinical determination will be made for which patients need it most in the early stages, with a focus on the most vulnerable ones, Ruppel said.
NSMC will also consider which cities and towns have been hit hardest by the COVID-19 pandemic when distributing the vaccine to patients, and will then phase out from there to reach everyone else in the community, Ruppel said.
However, Ruppel said while NSMC expects to begin distributing the vaccine as soon as Dec. 14, the timeline for distribution beyond its healthcare workers has not been determined, and will be contingent on the amount of doses the hospital network receives in the coming months.
Still, although doses will be limited in the early phases, there’s reason for optimism in the months ahead, Mahaniah said.
“There are still about 80 other companies that are working on a vaccine, so I expect that by springtime we might have as many as eight or 10 vaccines, which is great because then we will have enough to give to everybody,” he said.
Lynn resident Coco Alinsug was part of the team that reviewed the protocols of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. He was invited to take part in the process through his role as Global Community Advisory chairman of the HIV Vaccine Trials, he said.
Alinsug said he travels all over the world to meet with scientists and community leaders for the HIV vaccine trial network. Still an incurable disease, members of that network have been searching for years for a vaccine, he said.
“When COVID came, all of our work for HIV, we set it aside to focus on COVID,” said Alinsug, who credits that framework established for HIV trial research with helping to expedite the COVID vaccine process.
You hear the stories about how “it will take 20 years for an effective vaccine,” he said, but since there was already an institution for the HIV vaccine established, it was easy to make the COVID vaccine shift.
“There’s a lot of existing implementations that have been used already so it has been expedited,” said Alinsug.
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report.