prepare because information about what, when and how much vaccine is coming constantly changes.
That, plus extra funding (which comes from Congress) may be needed to make the undertaking possible–and we all know how long Congress can take to make a decision.
Other factors include how well a state’s health department is funded, how hard the pandemic has hit and how robust its immunization system was pre-pandemic.
Overall, state officials express confidence for this end of the year launch. Officials are meeting two and three times a week to prepare, hiring more people, beefing up their computer systems, requisitioning or buying everything from all-terrain delivery vehicles for remote places to dry ice machines for keeping the precious vaccine at its required sub-zero temperature.
In states such as Arizona, private health care systems will do much of the distribution.
There, Banner Health already is planning immunization sites at the state fairground in Phoenix. In Alaska, the tribal health system of 180 clinics will be integral to getting the vaccine out.
Some states have signed up for only a few providers for the CDC’s vaccine ordering system, others have hundreds ready to go. Some states are doing everything with their own staff, others have asked the National Guard to help-–in one case, almost 1,000 Guardsmen.
Other states seem like they either don’t know their method of delivery or are being secretive about it, while others publish lists and maps of every site on the web.
Two things stand out as the biggest hurdles to get this thing done efficiently: constantly shifting information about when and how much of the vaccine will arrive at clinic loading docks and a lack of approved funds to make it happen.
A state can be told to expect 60,000 doses in its first shipment, only to see the number drop to 20,000 a few weeks later.
One month the CDC says states don’t need to invest in ultra-cold freezers to store the Pfizer vaccine, the next there’s a run on them by bigger states, no matter what CDC says.