The U.S. government agreed to buy the first 100 million doses from Pfizer (good for 50 million people) before they knew if it worked or not.
In July, after the first promising test results, Pfizer repeatedly asked if the U.S. wanted to purchase another 100 million doses (the 2021 2nd quarter allotment). The U.S. government refused, even though the $1 billion this would have cost is chump change compared to to amount of damage that has been done to our economy. The money didn’t need to even be paid up front.
So Pfizer made agreements to sell this vaccine to other countries.
Now the U.S. wants to buy a second batch of doses, but Pfizer is saying that it won’t be available until June 2021 at the earliest.
In my opinion, this was extremely short-sighted. The U.S. knew that the Pfizer vaccine worked. Why take a pass on ordering more? Now having done so, we go to the back of the line. Instead, the U.S. is banking on the other vaccine manufacturers, when time is literally of the essence here.
I’m confused why this is suddenly a news story, though, because the timelines seem consistent with the timelines suggested by the WSJ and the NYT a week ago.
And now the freaking idiot chump in charge is going to try to screw Canada out of our vaccine, because he and his team were too stupid to make sure that they bought the doses.
If I had to guess, it’s because they didn’t play nicey nicey with the Dear Leader, and didn’t give him credit for inventing the vaccine. Either that, or they refused to give him kickbacks.
So - on the day that the first (90yo) person in Coventry receives the first approved vaccination, closely followed by one Willian Shakespeare, we now know how distribution will be handled.
No long lines and no one able to pay and jump the queue. We have all been told to stay home and wait for a letter with a date, time and place to get the jab. Elderly and vulnerable first and then NHS and carers.
While I’d be comfortable with a wide variety of people administering a shot, I’m not convinced that it would be necessary. Right now, when people get flu vaccines, they mostly just go to their local pharmacy. Now, I don’t know exactly what percentage of the population typically gets flu shots, but when I’ve gone in for one, the place has always been pretty quiet. They could handle significantly more people than they do for the flu.
But if, when it’s my turn, it’s a dentist, or a medical student, or a veterinarian, or an EMT, or whatever, sure, I’m fine with that. I’d even be fine with laymen who have had a crash course in how to do injections and nothing else medical, as long as the crash course was developed and graded by the folks who do know.
I got a little testy when a government leader signed an order that attempts to try to prevent people in my country from getting a vaccine that we have contracted to purchase from a multi-national company.
That seems quite civilized and organized, i.e. nothing like what I expect in the U.S. I can’t imagine anything like it would even be possible, given the lack of a national healthcare system.
Several years ago the free flu shot clinic at work was staffed by students from the pharmacy school learning how to give injections. The guy who gave me the flu shot said it was his first day giving injections to the public, as opposed to himself or the other students for practice, or whatever they do.
It was probably the most painful flu shot I’ve gotten, but that isn’t really saying much. Worse than an MA or RN who’s given thousands of shots over years? Sure, but still over in a few seconds and now just a little anecdote I tell the MA or RN when they apologize for jabbing me, “not as bad as this one time…”
Anyway, the point is, yeah, I don’t know what goes into the training to give injections, but even if it takes weeks to learn, there will still be plenty of work afterwards. Some vaccinations will be more painful than necessary, but not like dental surgery or anything.
Yeah, I initially was picturing long lines for drive-through vaccinations, in which case, I figured, lots of people giving shots could speed things up, so why not use trained volunteers? But now I’m not sure there will be long lines like that, just because the supply may be the bottleneck.
The initial healthcare workers and long-term care residents I imagine will be done onsite at the employer and facility, respectively.
Once it gets to more general distribution, I’m picturing more like 1000 doses being split out to 10 pharmacies in the area. A couple of pharmacists can get through that in a shift. And probably it will still go down the line by age, so it will limit the size of the real or virtual line.
I’m aware of how it went down. I just don’t know why the US refused particularly, as you say, its chump change. Maybe @Euphonious_Polemic has a point. Or as I said, they wouldn’t take our Operation Warp Speed money. Or someone has money with Moderna. Who knows?
There’s a pretty good reason. Both the Moderna and especially the Oxford vaccines are a lot easier to distribute and will likely be available within the month.
Eta: in another thread someone said Moderna is about 2 weeks behind in the approval process.
With this administration I’m not assuming automatically that there was a competent reason they left the Pfizer vaccine on the table. I’d very much like to hear from Slaoui ,General Perna or General Ostrowski on this point.
According to this yahoo article we’d wait a lot longer than that for more doses: late June 3032.
The company has now warned it will not be able to provide more than 100 million doses until late June 3032 because of the promises it made to other countries around the world.
1011.5 years seems like a really long time for them to need to produce more vaccine after fulfilling their contracts with other countries, but I’m not an expert.
If we need more places to administer injections, I’d suggest allergists. I get 3 shots at my allergist every 4 weeks or so. Those nurses must each being administering hundreds or thousands of injections each month. Even if they have to do these as IM vs a subq allergy shot, they can probably still do it with their eyes closed.
Florida shows how NOT to manage distribution: first come, first serve, no appointment necessary. Why spend time with planning when you can put the burden on the elderly?
Instead, the U.S. is banking on the other vaccine manufacturers, when time is literally of the essence here.