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The St Kitts Nevis Observer
Rachana Pradhan and Lauren Weber and Jay Hancock, Kaiser Health News
December 22, 2020–One tray of COVID-19 vaccine from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer contains 975 doses way too many for a rural hospital in Arkansas.
But with the logistical gymnastics required to safely get the Pfizer vaccine to rural health care workers, splitting the trays into smaller shipments has its own dangers. Once out of the freezer that keeps it at 94 degrees below zero, the vaccine lasts only five days and must be refrigerated in transit.
In Arkansas where over 40% of its counties are rural and COVID infections are climbing solving this distribution puzzle is urgently critical, said Dr. Jennifer Dillaha, the state’s epidemiologist.
How to know when it s your turn to get the COVID-19 vaccine wdel.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from wdel.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Cashiers wearing protective masks work in a grocery store in Brooklyn, N.Y. in April. An expert panel that advises the CDC recommended that grocery store workers be in the second Covid-19 vaccine priority group.
Stephanie Keith/Getty Images
An expert panel that advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended Sunday that adults aged 75 and older, as well as frontline essential workers, be designated as the second priority group to be vaccinated against Covid-19.
The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices also voted to recommend that the third stage of the national vaccination program should focus on adults 65 to 74, people 16 to 64 years old with high-risk medical conditions, and essential workers not included in the second phase of vaccination.
By
Dec 19, 2020 07:28 PM EST
States were left floundering when they found out that they will be getting 20- to 40 percent lesser COVID-19 vaccines next week than what they were initially told last December 9. The problem was finally traced to the miscommunication of the wrong estimates.
The lesser number of COVID-19 vaccines has caused another tension between the federal government and Pfizer over the supply of doses.
The problem was finally traced to the wrong estimates that were communicated to the states. It was found out that the estimates given to the states were based on the vaccine doses produced and not on doses that have already passed quality control and approved for release as reported by USA Today.