Ascension Via Christi President and CEO Bob Copple addressing a virtual meeting of the Manhattan Area Recovery Task Force Thursday.
It’s unclear how soon a coronavirus vaccine makes it into our area, but discussions are beginning to happen with state and local health officials about how vaccines will be distributed.
“We believe there will be some disseminated to local health departments for use within counties. I do anticipate that by a week from Friday, we’ll probably have a lot more detail what that will look like in Kansas,” said Ascension Via Christi President and CEO Bob Copple, who co-chairs the Manhattan Area Recovery Task Force.
He believes much more will be known by late next week as the Food and Drug Administration meets to decide whether or not the Pfizer vaccine gets approved for public use.
“And I think everybody anticipates it’s going to get approved. That will immediately begin the distribution process,” Copple said Thursday at the task force’s virtual meeting.
The FDA also plans to rule on Moderna’s COVID vaccine Dec. 17. Several million doses of that vaccine have already been stockpiled, according to Copple. It’s anticipated the nurses and medical officials will likely receive the first round of vaccines. As to a timetable for community distribution, Copple says that likely won’t happen right away.
“From the community perspective, I would expect by spring we will start to see those kinds of things really develop,” he said.
Copple estimates the vaccine should arrive in the Manhattan area for public distribution by April or May and says the healthcare community actually needs these next few months to prepare for a smooth rollout of a distribution plan for communities. The first shipments of the vaccine for first responders and others on the front line could arrive by the end of December.
“We’ve been told to expect vaccines in two weeks so that kind of gives you a feel for how things are going to start moving once we get approvals,” he said.
Kansas is expected to receive approximately 24,000 doses of the vaccines in the first round of distribution. Copple says his organization has been told the first group of vaccines will be insufficient for the number of health care providers they have.
“Even in the forward facing departments that are actually actively taking care of COVID patients, we do not anticipate getting enough vaccine even to care for them. There’s actually a prioritization process that all of us are going through kind of in concert with all of the health departments and KDHE,” he said.
Copple says there may be some side effects with the vaccine, primarily similar to what is experienced with an average flu shot. He estimates roughly 50 percent of the populace will be interested in taking the COVID vaccine. The task force plans to work in the coming month to develop messaging for the community to encourage the public to get vaccinated.
“From an enabler perspective, for our local economy, this actually is key. Communities and regions that figure out first how to do this successfully and get participation of people voluntarily getting vaccinated, that will be the quickest way to kickstart the economy and make a lot of other things really start happening,” he said.
The Pfizer product will come in two doses, three weeks apart. The Moderna product is said to be two doses, four weeks apart.
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