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One of five "pizza vaccine boxes with geo and thermal tracking device
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AIRPORT V 2 OICE, DECEMBER 2020
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Jeff Yapalater
516-425-4645
War on Covid began this week
Vaccine arrives in NY to begin battle
BY JEFF YAPALATER
As of December 16, Governor
Cuomo announced that “
We see alight at the end of a
long tunnel,” after sharing the
updated Pfizer distribution
and upcoming Moderna vaccines.
He said that the 170,000
doses have been allocated and
mostly shipped to the various
priority selected facilities.
Upcoming community
based health organizations
throughout the state will begin
to administer the vaccine
sometime in the beginning of
January once the first tier of
priority workers receive the
first shot. He also said the NYS
expects to get 340,000 doses of
the Moderna vaccine, once approved
by December 22nd He
expects another shipment of
the Pfizer vaccine around the
same time so both vaccines
will be administered in January.
In terms of cost, the Governor
emphatically said that “ it
will not cost a penny for the
vaccine” referring to insurers
that will pay the cost themselves.
Earlier this week, Monday,
December 14, Governor
Andrew M. Cuomo virtually
joined Northwell Health
President and CEO Michael
Dowling, Northwell Health
Director of Employee Health
Services Dr. Michelle Chester
and Long Island Jewish Medical
Center ICU Nurse Sandra
Lindsay for the first administration
of the COVID-19
vaccine in the United States.
Shortly before 9:30 a.m., Dr.
Chester administered the vaccine
to Ms. Lindsay, a frontline
health care worker eligible
to receive the vaccine
under Phase 1 of New York’s
Vaccine Distribution Plan.
The vaccine was developed by
New York-based pharmaceutical
company Pfizer and authorized
by the FDA and New
York’s Clinical Advisory Task
Force late last week.
Cuomo said that NYS was
slated to receive 170,000 doses
for the initial first dose, and
described in detail on the
need for frigid conditions for
storing the vaccine, the thawing
and inoculation. Showing
the outside shipping box
which measures roughly 30”
x 36” box, he said that each
outer box would hold up to 5
trays of the vaccine inside like
small pizza boxes. Each tray
would hold 195 vials, and each
vial would constitute 5 doses.
That’s about 5,000 doses per
case. That would equal about
34 shipping cartons for all the
doses, For NYC that would be
roughly 14 cartons; for Long
island that would be about 5
cases.
“We see light at
the end of a long
tunnel”
Cuomo, “Our NYS priority:
Nursing home residents first,
nursing home staff. There was
a discussion about if you do
the residents or do you do the
staff. New York, we decided
to do both residents and the
nursing home staff. Then you
go to high-risk hospital workers.
We have about 700,000
hospital workers in this state
so its’s a very large population.
We’ll prioritize the highrisk
hospital workers within
that overall health care population.
We have rules that we
have established that we will
send to hospitals about what
is a quote, unquote high-risk
health care worker. The hospitals
will select the actual individuals
who will get the first
vaccines within that guidance.
Emergency room workers,
ICU staff, pulmonary department
staff.
Initially only 6 million
doses are available nationwide.
Half of those have ship
immediately, the other half
will be held for the second
dose for those individuals who
receive the first dosage.
The federal government is
doing the allocation based on
state population and request
by each state which was required
earlier in the planning
process.. They distribute it to
the state, the state then turns
around and does an allocation
within the state. Further allocations
will be in the following
weeks.”
Transportation
So there are many specific
logistics for the transportation,
storage and inje4ction of
the vaccine.
The Governor explained
that Pfizer vaccine needs to
be handled properly. It needs
to remain frozen or packed
in dry ice where it can only
be opened for 60-90 seconds.
The vaccine must then be defrosted
for about 30 minut4s
then diluted and left to stand
for 2 hours before inoculation.
Most warehouses do not
have the -75 degrees Celsius
to maintain the cold for the
vaccine so this might present
transportation problems
when distributed on a wide
scale.
The dry ice must also be
changed every 5 days.
Soon after Pfizer’s vaccine
is delivered, we are expecting
to receive vaccines from Moderna.
Both vaccines require
two doses to be effective. The
space between the doses depends
on which vaccine you
get, and the vaccines are not
interchangeable. In other
words, if you get one Pfizer
shot and one Moderna shot,
the vaccine will NOT be effective.
Both of your shots must
be from the same manufacturer:
Pfizer OR Moderna. In
addition, the vaccine is only
considered effective after both
shots have been received.
The allocation by region,
again, this is based on number
of nursing home residents,
number of nursing home
staff and number of high-risk
health care workers. The 90
locations across the state that
can provide the cold storage
will receive enough doses for
roughly 90,000 patient-facing
hospital staff. That is 40 percent
of the total hospital patient
facing workforce of 225.
The 225,000 is a subset of the
overall 700,000, obviously. By
the end of week two, if all goes
well and the federal government
sticks to the schedule, we
expect all high-risk staff will
receive the vaccination. Staff
at every hospital will have
access to the allocation, even
if their hospital doesn’t have
this cold storage capacity.
Continued on page 17