COVID-19 vaccine to be prioritized for at-risk Tennesseans through end of 2020
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) - Vice President Mike Pence was in Memphis Thursday touting Operation Warp Speed, the federal government’s plan to fast track a COVID-19 vaccine.
Pence, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar and CDC Director Dr. Robert Redfield came to Memphis to talk COVID-19 vaccine distribution with FedEx officials, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, and Tennessee public health officials.
Pence said Thursday once initial approval is granted by the FDA vaccines will go out within 24 hours and be administered to at risk groups 24 hours after that.
“Help is on the way. We are just a matter of days away, we believe,” said Pence. “We are going to deliver that vaccine beginning with those in long term care facilities and our healthcare workers. We will deliver those just a matter of days after that approval.”
FedEx leadership said the Memphis shipper will play a pivotal role in getting vaccine all across the country and the world. Doses must be transported at extremely cold temperatures, while Bluetooth technology will track the life-saving vaccine shipments in real time.
“Every single person, all of my business partners, all 600,000 of us have no higher priority than to get these vaccines delivered on time and to the right location,” said Fred Smith, Chairman & CEO of FedEx Corporation.
The state of Tennessee is expecting 56,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 100,000 of Moderna at first, which sounds like a lot.
But 450,000 Tennesseans are in the state’s highest priority category, including healthcare workers with high exposure, those who live in long term care facilities, and first responders. That means demand will outweigh supply to start.
“The vaccine is going to be very limited in quantity to start with as we know, about 150,000 doses of vaccine over the first two weeks of delivery but then it will ramp up,” said Tennessee Governor Bill Lee. “We will be into January before we can be at a place to deliver more vaccines.”
The Shelby County Health Department said they’ve been told to anticipate their doses by mid-December. Director Alisa Haushalter said the area’s hospital systems will immunize their own employees, and the health department will vaccinate other groups.
“The health department will also receive vaccine and we will distribute to others within that 1a category that wouldn’t be vaccinated through their employer,” she said. “We are looking at having two point of dispensing sites and being able to have those easily accessible locations. We are trying to recruit people to assist with vaccinating others.”
Baptist infectious disease specialist Dr. Steve Threlkeld said it will likely be at least six months before average citizens have the opportunity to get vaccinated.
“This is likely to happen for most people in the United States, probably by summertime,” he said.
And Threlkeld warns a vaccine is not an immediate solution. He advises that masking, social distancing, and reminders of good hand hygiene will continue through 2021 until the virus is safely under control.
“I think it may be into the fall of the year before we have an all clear alert sounded. And even then it may be the kind of thing where you have to be able to be vaccinated to be able to participate in certain things,” he said. “It really may be some months before we can return to what we could consider pre-2020 normal.”
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