[ad_1]
Governor Jim Justice provided more details on the deployment of vaccines to combat the spread of covid-19.
“We need to get vaccinated, and we need to get vaccinated quickly to stop this thing,” he said during a regular briefing on the state’s response to the coronavirus.
Justice stressed his belief that the vaccine is safe – and necessary to prevent the spread of the virus.
“I’ll take mine in front of everyone,” the governor said. “You have to take the vaccine.”
The governor looked at the availability first of a vaccine produced by Pfizer and then of a vaccine produced by Moderna within a relatively short timeframe.
Justice announced that the expected receipt date for the first doses of the Pfizer vaccine – which was the first vaccine submitted to the United States Food and Drug Administration for emergency use authorization – is Tuesday, December 15. But the governor stressed that this date is an estimate, dependent on the approval of the FDA and subject to change.
Recent national reports indicate that Pfizer will have to ship half of the covid-19 vaccines originally scheduled for this year due to supply chain issues.
Justice did not mention this today, but announced that West Virginia planned to receive an initial allocation of about 60,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, with a weekly order cap of around 16,000.
For the Moderna vaccine – the second vaccine submitted to the FDA for emergency use authorization – the expected receipt date is approximately one week after the arrival of the Pfizer vaccine. West Virginia plans to receive an initial allocation of approximately 26,000 doses of Moderna vaccine, with a weekly order cap of approximately 3,000 to 5,000.
Justice has suggested that West Virginia’s vaccine allocation could increase until the end of 2020. Vaccine estimates for 2021 are not yet available.
Since there will be a limited supply of the covid-19 vaccine when it is first available, the vaccine will be distributed in phases, depending on the risk of contracting the virus.
Justice described the state as aligned with priorities recommended by the Federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, with the first available doses of vaccine being distributed to healthcare workers, staff and residents of long-term care facilities. duration, to people essential to community infrastructure and emergency response, to the public health officials and first responders. If health workers get sick, the governor said, “we are really in trouble”.
More than 100,000 Western Virginians who fall into these categories, state officials said.
“Then it all falls into place, whether it’s our teachers or people over a certain age,” Justice said.
The governor said his goal is for Western Virginians to easily get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as large amounts become available. When the vaccine becomes available in greater quantities, it will become available to the general population.
The governor said he hoped by mid-March “we will be able to vaccinate almost everyone”, although he stressed that it was his own instinct. Most of the other estimates went on for months.
“Now that’s ambitious, and that’s the thought of Jim Justice. That’s not necessarily the thought of the CDCs because they’re stuffing themselves and giving themselves extra time, ”he said. “But I think if we push and push hard enough, we’ll be able to come out with the mainstream and we’re absolutely going to slow this thing down, like, real soon.
The initial vaccine allocation will be distributed to five ultra-cold storage centers in West Virginia in Berkeley, Cabell, Greenbrier, Kanawha and Monongalia counties.
Justice also announced that the plan eventually involves expanding distribution through additional vendors in West Virginia. More than 500 potential sites have now signed up to help distribute vaccine doses, and the governor has said he will push for more vendors, pharmacies and more to sign up.
The vaccines will require two doses – with the Pfizer doses 21 days apart and the Moderna doses 28 days apart. Justice stressed the importance of receiving two doses of the vaccine.
“If only one is received, immunity cannot be guaranteed in any way,” he said.
The vaccines are not interchangeable, which means that if you receive Pfizer for the first injection, you should receive Pfizer for the second injection.
Pharmaceutical companies have developed vaccines in historic times, using messenger RNA, or mRNA, technology. The new approach to vaccines uses genetic material to elicit an immune response.
Pfizer’s vaccine should be stored at minus 94 degrees. Modern says his vaccine remains stable between 36 and 46 degrees.
“This is truly an incredibly optimistic turn for the covid-19 pandemic,” said Clay Marsh, West Virginia coronavirus response coordinator.
[ad_2]
Source link