MADISON, Wis. – As we see promising results from experimental COVID-19 vaccines, health officials in Dane County are planning how best to roll out vaccinations to the public once they get the green light.
Preliminary data shows a vaccine from Moderna Inc. to be 94.5% effective. The news comes a week after Pfizer Inc. announced its vaccine appears to be 90% effective. That puts them on track to seek permission for emergency use in the U.S. within weeks.
“It’s a giant step in the right direction,” said UW-Health’s Dr. William Hartman, who leads the AstraZenaca vaccine trail in Madison. He noted that the Moderna vaccine doesn’t need to be stored at as ultra-cold temperatures for as long as the Pfizer vaccine, which could help with distribution.
“That is a big variable: figuring out how to store and then use (them) in a timely, safe fashion,” said Nathan Bubenzer, emergency preparedness safety manager at UnityPoint Health-Meriter.
He imagines the vaccine could begin being staged in the state by as early as the end of the month so that it can be distributed as quickly as possible once it’s authorized.
“We do still have a lot more questions than answers,” Bubenzer said. “However, based on what little we do know and what is coming through, we’re building a plan to be able to provide the vaccine for both staff and patients.”
It comes at a time when a vaccine is more needed than ever.
“All of our hospitals are getting very full. We’re often sitting at zero, one, maybe two available beds. As soon as we open a bed, as soon as we discharge somebody, that bed seems to be filled, often with another COVID patient,” Bubenzer said. “The staff have been doing this for a long time. We’re getting tired. We’re getting stretched.”
He said they’re waiting on guidance from the State and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention that will outline tiers for which groups should receive the vaccine first. Bubenzer said health care and certain essential workers would be among the first, likely sometime next month. Vulnerable populations including the elderly would likely follow, before the general public.
“It’s going to be relatively limited supply initially,” Bubenzer said.
According to a statement, SSM Health has a task force working with state and federal officials on distribution plans. The health system also anticipates that frontline health care workers will receive the vaccine first, with phased vaccinations for the general public, “which is not likely until spring.”
When the time comes, Bubenzer said patients will likely be able to make an appointment with their medical providers, while Public Health Madison & Dane County, which runs the Alliant Energy Center COVID-19 testing site, will focus on the underinsured.
In a statement, PHMDC referenced the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices efforts to create tiered recommendation, writing, “We will follow these priority tiers in Dane County and are working with partners to plan for equitable, ethical, and transparent distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.”
Health officials must also put a plan in place to ensure patients are completing their vaccinations when both the frontrunner vaccines require two spaced-out doses.
“Tracking all the pieces is going to be vitally important,” Bubenzer said.
What’s also important, according to health officials: not getting too ahead of ourselves.
“This is just another adjunct, another tool in the tool box. All the tools together are the most effective way to combat this,” Hartman said. “Wear the mask, wash the hands, outside more than inside, socially distance, then we’ll add the vaccine in there as well.”
“Understand we are in the middle of a surge now,” Bubenzer said. “Whatever we can do until a vaccine comes and even after a vaccine comes to minimize that spread is vitally important now.”
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