The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health (LADPH) provided an overview of the plan for the distribution of the first 82,875 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine allocated to the county, in a brief on Thursday afternoon.
The FDA recently issued an emergency use authorization (EUA) of the Pfizer vaccine after it completed Phase Three clinical trials, and there is potential the Moderna vaccine will receive a EUA in the next two weeks, according to LADPH officials.
The 82,875 doses of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine allocated to Los Angeles County are expected to be delivered by early next week, according to Dr. Paul Simon, chief science officer and director of the Division of Assessment, Planning, and Quality at LADPH.
The Pfizer clinical trials included 40,000 participants of ages 16 and older, while the Moderna trials had over 30,000 participants of ages 18 and older.
“Both have been found to be approximately 95 percent effective in preventing COVID-19 infection, at least over the two months following vaccinations,” said Simon. “Important unanswered questions include how long protection lasts and the degree to which the vaccines prevent asymptomatic infection with potential for continued spread of the virus. These questions will be answered in the coming months with ongoing studies and continued monitoring as the vaccines are rolled out.”
Simon went on to state the trials have identified no severe adverse reactions that appear attributable to the vaccines, however many participants experienced some temporary side effects, including soreness near the site where the vaccine was administered, headache, muscle ache, fever, chills and fatigue.
The county plan for distribution is currently set up in three phases, 1A, 1B and 1C.
Phase 1A focuses on healthcare workers and residents of long term care facilities and includes the initial delivery of 82,875 doses expected next week.
After that initial delivery, the county expects to receive two additional allocations in December and then weekly allocations thereafter in the new year, according to Simon.
Phase 1B then focuses on essential workers, Phase 1C is slated for high-risk groups such as seniors and those with chronic health conditions.
“Plans are currently being developed for how persons within these broad groupings will be prioritized and how the vaccines will be delivered,” Simon said. “This planning is occurring in close coordination with the state health department, the local healthcare community and many other community partners.”
The hope is to be able to move into Phase 1B of the plan in January according to Simon, so long as shipments of vaccine continue to arrive as expected, but the massive scale of the initiative also presents unique logistical challenges.
“This is going to be the hardest logistical challenge that we’ve faced and in the middle of a surge,” said Dr. Claire Jarashow, Director, Vaccine Preventable Disease Control Program at LADPH. “So it’s all hands on deck and we’re all working incredibly hard, but I think with the additional complexity of the numerous different vaccines, and we welcome as much vaccine as possible, but it’s very challenging, and we’re figuring these things out as we get new information daily.”
Additionally, while the timeline of vaccine distribution continues to come further into focus, health officials are still unable to provide any concrete timeline to a return to pre-COVID life.
“I recognize that people are very eager, understandably, to get back out there and resume their normal activities, unfortunately we’re not there yet,” Simon said. “I’ve worked in public health for 30 plus years, I’ve never been more concerned than I am right now and so we’re not even close to being able to move back out. I think over the next several months we’ll get a better understanding of when we can open things up, we’ll have a better understanding of how well the vaccine works in the real world.”
Simon did go on to say that while certainly not a promise he was “cautiously optimistic that by late summer maybe we can get back to doing more of the things we’re used to doing.”
Official information on the COVID-19 vaccine in Los Angeles County is available here.
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