Planning Must Begin Now To Determine How We Will Vaccinate 380 Million Americans When.....

[global1]

a vaccine becomes available.

Look at the issues we have right now to do testing of 380 million Americans. They don't have enough tests. They are running out of reagents to do the testing. Trump is talking about reducing or ending funding for testing. He's leaving it to the States. Confusion reigns. They are talking about a second peak of the virus which will require additional testing. If they want to restart the economy they want to allow some to go back to work. Testing will be required to determine who those people are.

Right now - my assessment of testing is that it is utter chaos.

I ask - do we want to go through all this again - when a vaccine becomes available in a year or 18 months?

I don't. So we need to start planning now to develop a plan to vaccinate 380 million Americans most efficiently without the same confusion/same chaos we have with testing.

And that means we need to think ahead as to how we will be able to manufacture 380 milliion doses. We need to make sure that we have the required components available to be able to administer 380 million doses (i.e., syringes, needles, vials, rubber stoppers, caps, alcohol swabs, etc). These are items we will need if the vaccine is an injectable dosage form.

Then we need to determine how those doses will be distributed across America. Once they are available in the States - where will these be available for the public to receive a dose. Who will administer the doses (do we need to train additional people to do the administration?). How will we be able to do that orderly to avoid lines; waiting times; turmoil in the lines; etc)

And - mind you - we are only talking about distribution and administration in the United States. This vaccine needs to be available to the whole world. All nations. All people.

Yes - now is the time to begin to plan ahead for this unavoidable and hopefully - final step in the evolution and the eradication of this virus - to render it gone or at least controllable.

The federal government, state and local governments, the CDC, local health departments, pharmaceutical manufacturers, health device manufacturers (syringes/needles); delivery vehicles - the containers that the vaccine will be placed in (i.e., vials, rubber stoppers, caps, labeling, etc), distribution channels (i.e., how will the vaccine be distributed across the country) all must be included in the planning.

Again - we need to start this planning now or if it is not well thought out - we'll be facing shortages, rationing, making determinations as to who will receive what is available and even more additional time to live through this crisis before we get back to some 'new normal'.

[Girard442]

1. When I was a kid, there were clinics in the schools for polio immunizations.

I remember feeling very harshly treated and I was a bit mollified when some years later, Mom said she was upset at the time at how roughly the kids were treated.

Now that I'm older and realize what was going on at the time, I'm OK with all of that. The teams running the clinics were under the gun to run as many kids through as humanly possible. They were probably med students, EMTs, or Army medics "volunteered" for clinic duty and they probably would have preferred to have been anyplace else.

But they did good. Nobody I knew at the time got polio. Much thanks, people. And, thanks in advance to the next wave.

[cwydro]

8. We had them too, but it was simply a sugar cube.

I never had a sweet tooth, so I didn’t like eating it, but most kids lapped it right up.

[Girard442]

10. Yeah, the Sabin vaccine. Came out later than the Salk, which had to be injected.

My young self was very jealous of people who got the Sabin.

[cwydro]

21. Lol, I bet you were!

Funny, how I remember that so well. I think I was in first or second grade.

I remember being hauled in to the doctor’s office however for the measles shot when that came out. Wasn’t happy about that one bit.

[Ex Lurker]

16. We got both

They popped a sugar cube in your mouth and then you got the needle. I thought it was a mean trick.

[cwydro]

22. Yikes!

That was a mean trick! I think I’d have remembered if there were needles involved so I guess we just got the sugar cube.

[beachbumbob]

2. first step is the immunity test so vaccinations IF and when they happen are not wasted. We are 12

months min before a vaccine could be available or longer. We are just a few months away from having an immunity test. All our efforts short term is find out who are "safe" so they can get back to work to safeguard those who have not been infected.

Once we have vaccine the logistics are NOT insurmountable to coordinate the mandatory taking of the vaccine in whatever form it may be.

[lagomorph777]

12. +1 We need to push Trump aside and force high-volume manufacturing of tests.

Every American should be able to test themselves every week.

That would stop this thing in a month.

Which is exactly why Trump is blocking high-volume testing. His boss has ordered him to kill as many Americans as possible.

[beachbumbob]

13. we need the likes of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet to step up as trump.gop could

give a fuck

[lagomorph777]

14. Yes - a few billion would buy a HUGE number of tests.

[beachbumbob]

20. also fund the R&D of a vaccine which Gates is doing now

our Govt has been wrecked by trump and GOP

[Blues Heron]

3. anti-vaxxers to the back of the line obviously

they can go last, and stay quarantined until it's their turn.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. If They Know Someone Who Died...

...from CV19, they'll be making a rapid reconsideration.

[BGBD]

6. They

are probably the ones throwing coronavirus parties and believe they can cure it by drinking some bleach-water.

We aren't going to achieve universal vaccination, we just need to get enough people that the disease R0 stays under 1.

It's not going to matter if there are 20 or 30k COVID-19 cases annually in the country. We just need to get enough people vaccinated to keep the spread low. That includes vaccinating the most vulnerable at as high a possible percentage. Include COVID vaccination as part of the mandatory public school vaccine regime. Require it to hold any medical license. Require it for anyone seeking a food handlers license.

We won't get everybody, but we can apply enough leverage that most people will get the shot.

Of course there is always the chance that the rolling out of the shot is botched. That's highly likely if Trump is in charge when it happens. All the more reason to show up in November and elect Biden.

[Squinch]

4. Thank God Donnie Bodybags won't be president when it comes out.

[jmbar2]

7. Walmart

[lagomorph777]

15. Mass distribution of TESTS by mail. Every week.

Include a phone app that will send a photo of your test stick and its ID barcode back to CDC or to Gates' nonprofit. SO we get real, instant, tracking of outbreaks.

Mass testing could start NEXT WEEK if we can bypass Trump's embargo.

[customerserviceguy]

9. We also need to determine priority lists

I'd put healthcare workers (who haven't already had C-19) at the top of the list, followed by a really well thought out list of "essential workers".

Seniors need to be up that list a ways, they're more likely to suffer the worst consequences from getting the disease.

We do have a fair amount of time to figure this out before it is a reality, though.

[NCjack]

11. I doubt that anyone is doing that planning. When they realize that Biden will be prez

when that is implemented, they will him an empty shelf.

[modrepub]

17. As Effective As The Flu Vaccine?

What if the new vaccine is as effective as the current flue vaccine? I hope that it works as well as most ones do but I wonder if COVID-19 will behave like the other flu viruses and just be really hard to pin down. There are an awful lot of unknowns right now and me not being in healthcare I hope I'm wrong on this.

[Ex Lurker]

19. Coronaviruses don't mutate as much as flu viruses

Hopefully it will be one and done.

[Spider Jerusalem]

18. An extra 50+ million people is a hell of a COVID-19 baby boom, I guess? (n/t)

[fromVT]

23. Post office does it

https://www.wired.com/story/us-postal-plan-coronavirus-vaccine-doomsday/

"If and when a mass vaccine finally arrives for Covid-19, Americans may be surprised to learn precisely who might knock at their door to distribute the life-saving aid: A mask-clad, gloved postal carrier, flanked by a deputy sheriff or National Guard soldier."

[crickets]

25. Very interesting link. Thank you! nt

[ProfessorPlum]

24. there are no vaccines for coronaviruses. yet. let's hope one is even possible

[dawg day]

26. So true... Trump thinks testing is just too hard to do with a population.

Imagine how he'll cower at the idea of vaccinating us all.

I guess he might just stop insulting and threatening the World Health Organization, you know, the group that entirely eradicated smallpox across the whole globe with the greatest public health project in history.

Oh, yeah, and that's the organization that quickly produced a reliable and cheap COVID test that Trump spitefully refused.