Vaccinations: Who, How & When
SARATOGA SPRINGS — Two COVID-19 vaccines have been approved for use in New York and more may be on the way as the state moves through its first designated phase of vaccinations.
“The vaccine is here. It’s a light at the end of the tunnel and we see this ending the pandemic ultimately, but to do that we need to have 70% of our population vaccinated. In Saratoga County that’s 168,000 people we need vaccinated. So far, we’ve been able to vaccinate about 3% of the population, so we have a long way to go,” Mike McEvoy, EMS Coordinator for Office of Emergency Services at Saratoga County, said this week.
The amount of vaccine the state receives is based upon the allocation made to New York by the federal government. It is up to the state to determine who most needs it first, which is reflected in the phased approach.
“There is a limited supply of vaccines – there certainly is not enough to go around to everybody, so people have been divided into groups to determine who will get the vaccine first, who will it second, who will get it third. The timing of this is based on who is first at risk,” McEvoy says.
The process is currently in Phase 1A – which includes at high-risk hospital workers, ICU staff, nursing home residents and staff, EMS workers and others. McEvoy said he anticipates Phase 1B – which includes teachers, first responders, people aged 75 and older – may begin by early February. But there are may variables.
The first priority is protecting hospital capacity and staff, Gov. Andrew Cuomo said this week. “Vaccinating the hospital staff is vital. They are the front line. The UK strain complicates the issue because if more nurses and doctors get sick, it reduces your hospital capacity. And if you reduce your hospital capacity, then you have the worst-case scenario. And the worst-case scenario is a very real possibility. You overwhelm the hospitals, people die. You have to close down the economy. So, it’s game over if the hospitals get overwhelmed.”
As of this week, New York has received 950,000 dosages toward the first 2.1 million-plus people in the healthcare and nursing home Phase 1A category. By the end of this week, the state expects it will have distributed approximately 911,000 first doses of the vaccine to providers for administration to eligible New Yorkers. The state is receiving about 300,000 dosages per week from the federal government, a rate that would take several weeks to fulfill first-shot doses for millions of people in the first phase.
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“Everyone wants to know: When will they get vaccinated? 1A is the healthcare workers and that’s what we’re doing now. 1B are the essential workers and those over 75,” Cuomo said. That 1B category includes: 870,000 educational workers, 207,000 first responders – such as police and firefighters, a combined 200,000 public safety and public transit workers, plus 1.3 million people aged 75 and older, among others.
The governor said he is hopeful the federal government will be increasing production. “They say they will, I believe they will, and frankly the private market is increasing production,” Cuomo said, pointing to current vaccines Pfizer and Moderna, and Johnson & Johnson – which is undergoing efficacy tests and requires just one shot, and Oxford-AstraZeneca. “I can’t say to any New Yorker right now ‘How Long’ until we know exactly what the supply is going to be. The experts are talking about March-April for large-scale, general population distribution.”
THE VACCINES
The FDA and New York State’s independent Clinical Advisory Task Force has thus far approved two vaccines: Pfizer and BioNTech, and another developed by Moderna. Each requires two shots and individuals must receive two doses of the same vaccine, with the second dose administered 21 days later with the Pfizer vaccine, or 28 days later with the Moderna vaccine. Other COVID-19 vaccines under development include Johnson & Johnson’s proposed COVID-19 vaccine, which reportedly plans to seek emergency use authorization in February and could potentially only require a single dose. In New York State, Cuomo has stipulated the vaccines will be provided at no cost.
The program is being led by hospitals in each region. As such, “Saratoga County does not have the capacity to determine who gets vaccinated, how many vaccines we have or even when we get them,” said Saratoga Springs Supervisor Tara Gaston. “I understand the information on vaccinations is not where the public would like it, where the city would like it, where I would like it. The information the state is positing on their vaccine distribution page is all that has been released publicly or otherwise. We are requesting additional information and as soon as we get it, we will be putting it out. There are currently no facilities (yet approved) in Saratoga County that provide vaccination to the public generally,” Gaston said.
“Despite the fact that we do not have the full timeline, Saratoga County is working diligently to plan the broader release of this vaccine. The county is reviewing several sites throughout the city of Saratoga Springs and the remainder of the county so we may institute PODs (Points-of-Dispensing) for the delivery of vaccines with less than 24 hours’ notice.”
Gaston added that anyone who may meet the qualifications to administer vaccines may register to volunteer at www.amc.edu/CapitalRegionVax. “This is the site that’s been set up by Albany Med – who have been assigned the role of leading vaccinations in the Capital Region.”
For the most current information about vaccines in New York, go to: covid19vaccine.health.ny.gov.
New York State is currently in Phase 1A of vaccine distribution.
Eligible New Yorkers for the vaccine currently include: High-risk hospital workers; Residents and staff at nursing homes and other congregate care facilities; Federally Qualified Health Center employees; EMS workers; Coroners, medical examiners and certain funeral workers; Staff and residents at OPWDD, OMH and OASAS facilities; Urgent Care providers; Individuals administering COVID-19 vaccines, including local health department staff, as well as all front-line, high-risk public health workers who have direct contact with patients, including those conducting COVID-19 tests, handling COVID-19 specimens and COVID-19 vaccinations, among others.
Once Phase 1A vaccinations are satisfied, the state will move to Phase 1B distribution.
Phase 1B
Following vaccinations for the health care sector, New York will move to Phase 1B of the distribution, which will include:
• Teachers and education workers
• First responders
• Public safety workers
• Public transit workers
• People 75 and older
CDC: Frequently Asked Questions About Vaccines
Q: Can a COVID-19 vaccine make me sick with COVID-19?
A: No. None of the authorized and recommended COVID-19 vaccines or COVID-19 vaccines currently in development in the United States contain the live virus that causes COVID-19. This means that a COVID-19 vaccine cannot make you sick with COVID-19.
Q: If I have already had COVID-19 and recovered, do I still need to get vaccinated with a COVID-19 vaccine?
A: Yes. Due to the severe health risks associated with COVID-19 and the fact that re-infection with COVID-19 is possible, vaccine should be offered to you regardless of whether you already had COVID-19 infection.
Q: Will a COVID-19 vaccine alter my DNA?
A: No. COVID-19 mRNA vaccines do not change or interact with your DNA in any way.
Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.