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The first shipment of a COVID-19 vaccine could arrive in Alaska in just a few weeks, according to state health officials.
The first batches of the vaccine will be prioritized for essential workers in healthcare, assisted living and emergency medical services, officials said Monday. Vaccines will initially be in limited supply and likely not be available to the general public until around March. The state is still working on plans to prioritize vaccine supplies once they become more widely available.
The mid-December schedule for vaccines is based on new announcements made by two pharmaceutical companies – Pfizer and Moderna – which claim their vaccines are over 90% effective against COVID-19, a surprisingly high rate of effectiveness for vaccines developed in record time, according to health officials.
A third vaccine from England-based pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca announced Monday morning that its vaccine was also 90% effective.
The high efficacy rates of these vaccines are “such a triumph,” said Joe McLaughlin, a state epidemiologist. For comparison, the effectiveness of the flu vaccine typically ranges between 40% and 60%, he said.
Moderna has announced plans to submit its own emergency clearance request within weeks, and AstraZeneca has also said it plans to seek prompt approval as soon as possible.
With those final bars left out, questions abound about who will have access to the vaccine and when, how safe it is, and how distribution might work in Alaska, a state with unique geographic challenges and limited access to care. health.
Here’s what we know so far about Alaska’s plans.
The state has not definitively decided on a timeline for vaccine distribution, but it will be phased, with frontline healthcare workers prioritized for first doses, said Tessa Walker Linderman, co-lead with Alaska COVID Vaccine Task Force. , during the Monday briefing.
Based on the latest schedule of meetings scheduled by federal agencies, the earliest Pfizer vaccine could be shipped is December 10, with Moderna likely about a week late, said Dr. Anne Zink, chief medical officer of the State, at the same call. .
The next phase could include those who are high-risk workers or critical infrastructure, while the general public will likely not have access to a vaccine until March or April, she said.
Pregnant women and children, however, were not included in any of the trials, so they will have to wait even longer for access to a vaccine.
Frontline healthcare workers are defined as critical hospital workers, frontline EMS staff, and long-term care facility staff, said Walker Linderman.
The state does not know how much vaccine it will receive, and authorities are currently planning three different scenarios: one in which the state initially receives less than 5,000 doses; an approximately 10,000 doses; and one around 20,000.
“We haven’t received specific numbers, but these are our three potential scenarios that we plan to work on,” she said on a call with potential vaccine suppliers last week.
The distribution of vaccines has always been a logistical challenge in a state where many communities are only accessible by plane, boat or snowmobile.
A tight schedule for distribution – especially in the case of the Pfizer vaccine, which must be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius, and then can only be refrigerated for five days after thawing – further complicates matters, officials say.
“There are very few freezers in Alaska and across the country that have this capability,” said Joe McLaughlin, an epidemiologist in the state’s health department. “And so, from a logistical point of view, it is a little more difficult to disseminate this vaccine in more rural areas,” he explained.
Fortunately, the Moderna vaccine has a slightly easier to achieve temperature range, he said; more in the range of minus 20.
AstraZeneca vaccine should not be stored at ultra-cold temperatures at all.
State health officials have said one of their top priorities is to ensure people in rural Alaska have equal and equitable access to a vaccine.
“It’s a very hot conversation right now,” Zink said. “We know that rural health outcomes are generally worse.”
At the federal and state levels, discussions about equitable access to vaccine distribution are ongoing, she said.
A team of 40 people, including representatives from the state and the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium, are working “around the clock” on plans to receive, distribute and administer the vaccine, Walker Linderman said.
Alaska has not yet decided which vaccine it will receive, but that will depend on which one is ultimately found to be the safest and most effective, and which is logistically easiest to distribute in the state. McLaughlin said.
They might also see differential efficacy of these vaccines across subpopulations – for example, one might work best on the elderly or those at higher risk. It will also influence their decision.
State health department doctor Dr Liz Ohlsen said on a call late last week that although development of a COVID-19 vaccine has progressed much faster than Usually, none of the drug companies have skipped any steps in their clinical trials. .
There are several reasons for speeding up the schedule, none of which involve compromises in safety or efficiency, Ohlsen said.
“Labs all over the world have given up whatever they were working on and moved on to this,” she said. “So there was a lot of information sharing in a way we’ve never seen before.”
The two pharmaceutical companies have now completed their phase three clinical trials, she said. Tens of thousands of people have now been tested, with scientists closely examining their safety and effectiveness.
Ohlsen said people should be aware that based on data released so far on both vaccines, it appears that both can cause mild side effects in the first few days.
“So it’s things like fatigue, headaches, joint pain, and chills,” she says. The second dose usually elicits more of an “immune response,” she said, which is why these side effects are most important then.
These symptoms just show that your body is “preparing a response” and are not a sign that the vaccine is hurting you, she said.
Still, “it’s important for people to know ahead of time that there wouldn’t be any unexpected side effects from having these side effects within the first one to three days of getting vaccinated,” she said. .
More will be known once all the data from the clinical trials are made public, she said.
There should be no cost to patients receiving a vaccine, Walker Linderman said. However, healthcare providers will likely be able to charge an administration fee to the insurance.
Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also said cost would not be a barrier to obtaining the vaccine, and supplies would be distributed free by the federal government to registered COVID-19 vaccine vendors.
Despite remaining hurdles, officials in Alaska say news of a vaccine on the horizon is cause for hope.
“We are extremely excited about the advisability of a possible vaccination in the near future,” Zink said.
Yet, she reminded Alaskans that a vaccine is not a magic bullet and that Alaskans should always follow all public health guidelines now to help control the spread. There are still record amounts of the virus circulating in the state, she said. The effects of the vaccine will not be felt immediately.
“I think it’s a bit like the sun,” she said. “The Alaskans are used to a dark winter, and we’re also used to the fact that December 22nd doesn’t look much lighter than the 21st. And I think the vaccine is going to feel the same.
First, you won’t notice it, she says. By February, you will feel like something is changing.
“And at the summer solstice, it’s going to be like, the sun is out, and it’s different than it was before,” she said.
DNA reporter Zaz Hollander contributed to this story.
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