TEXAS — To many, the promise of a COVID-19 vaccine feels like a sliver of light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel. Vaccinations have been approved, and are rolling out across the country, but what do you need to know about getting vaccinated in Texas?
In a meeting earlier Thursday, the Food and Drug Administration approved emergency authorization to Pfizer/BioNTech’s version of the vaccine, triggering the start of an unprecedented effort to inoculate enough Americans to confer individual immunity and eventually stop the virus’s spread. There are still plenty of regulatory and logistical hurdles to overcome before the country can properly exhale, including ramping up production to tens of millions of doses, shipping them in specially designed boxes packed with dry ice to keep them ultracold, and vaccinating people in every corner of the United States.
Vaccines are already being administered in Britain. And Thursday's vote clears the way for the vaccine's almost immediate distribution to all 50 states. Operation Warp Speed, the White House-led initiative to develop and distribute vaccines, has said it plans to begin shipping the vaccine within 24 hours of an FDA authorization. But, if an unexpected problem should emerge, or the advisory panel raises concerns, the process could be slowed.
Even if all goes as hoped, the potentially lifesaving vaccine will take several months to reach most Americans — and that’s assuming the vaccine is widely accepted.
Texas, one of the hardest-hit areas of the world, is expected to receive 1.4 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines by the end of the month, which the state has earmarked for frontline healthcare workers and residents of long-term care facilities.
Texas should be able to administer its first 100,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine within two days of its approval, thanks to dry runs the state conducted earlier this year, Gov. Greg Abbott said Tuesday.
The state plans to follow up with text messages, phone calls and email reminders to ensure people get the essential second dose, he said at a vaccine summit at the White House.
For answers to commonly asked questions, please refer to the FAQ below. Spectrum News 1 will update this story as new developments occur.
As of now, the FDA has ruled on one vaccine made by Pfizer/BioNTech, and will decide as soon as next week on another by Moderna.
The FDA said the agency could authorize the Pfizer vaccine “within a week” of a favorable recommendation from the advisory committee, which came Thursday. Some think the decision would be even sooner than that.
The following week, the process starts over for Moderna. On December 15, the agency will post its view of the vaccine in preparation for a December 17 advisory committee meeting. Authorization in the U.S. could come shortly after that meeting if everything checks out. Moderna Chief Executive Stéphane Bancel says authorization could come December 18 to 20.
The biggest difference between the two vaccines is that Pfizer’s version requires two doses, whereas Moderna’s takes just one.
The question of the duration of a vaccine’s efficacy “will be part of ongoing studies,” Albert Bourla, the chief executive officer at Pfizer, said on a press call with the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations on Dec. 8. The answer doesn’t just depend on how a vaccine performs; it could also change depending on how SARS-CoV-2 acts in the real world.
Early evidence from individual cases has suggested that it’s possible to develop COVID-19 more than once. Scientists still aren’t clear on why this happens; theoretically, after we get sick, our immune cells should build up antibody defenses that will be ready to tackle future infections even faster. It could be that COVID-19 is more like seasonal viruses, like the cold or flu, for which we don’t retain long-term immunity. In that case, beating back the pandemic and keeping it back would require repeated vaccinations.
No.
The short answer is that it all depends on your age, occupation, health, and any several other factors. Most experts agree it will take at least six months for the vaccinations to reach everyone.
The long answer is … complicated.
The first allotment will be sent to 109 hospitals across the state to vaccinate frontline healthcare staffers working directly with patients who are positive or at risk for COVID-19, according to a proposal the state submitted to the CDC Friday.
The distribution plan is set by the Texas health commissioner, Dr. John Hellerstedt, with guidance from the Expert Vaccine Allocation Panel, a group of 17 advisers, including four legislators.
Including the residents at long-term care facilities, the panel has identified about 1.8 million Texans who will be eligible to be vaccinated for COVID-19 first, Deusen told The Dallas Morning News.
Most of them are frontline health care workers, including hospital staffers, EMS providers, home health aides, and employees at long-term care facilities, in addition to the residents.
The state’s plan designates a second tier that includes staff members at clinics, freestanding ER’s, pharmacies, and funeral homes; school nurses; and people who are “directly involved in administration of COVID testing and vaccinations.”
The plan calls for hospitals to vaccinate staffers working directly with patients who are positive or at high risk for COVID-19, including physicians, nurses, respiratory therapists, and other support staffers, such as custodians.
The panel is still evaluating who will come next as more doses become available.
Texas school superintendents requested this week that teachers and principals be among the first to receive vaccinations. Similarly, the Texas Restaurant Association is lobbying for restaurant workers to have priority.
The New York Times and others developed a tool that calculates a person’s place in line based on geography, health, and demographic information. Trying it at home can be awkward: You might find that not everyone in the family is in the same place in line.
Any facility, organization, or healthcare provider licensed to possess or administer vaccines or provide vaccination services is eligible to become a COVID-19 vaccinator.
Health care providers must enroll with the state as a COVID-19 vaccine provider to be eligible to receive the vaccine. The link to register is here.
Providers include medical practices, pharmacies, hospitals, long-term care facilities, health centers, health departments, correctional facilities, and others.
More than 4,100 providers in more than 225 Texas counties have enrolled with the state health department, and an additional 2,500 Texas locations of national pharmacy chains have enrolled directly with the federal government.
Pharmacies across the country, such as CVS and Walgreens, will be able to distribute free coronavirus vaccines when the supply becomes widely available to the public.
Federal health officials said that would most likely be in Spring 2021 or later as the supply continually increases. H-E-B announced it will also participate in a federal program for COVID-19 vaccine distribution.
The side effects are similar to those of a flu shot and should dissipate in 24-48 hours. Experts said that no one experienced anything out of the ordinary in clinical tests.
People who have a history of allergic reactions to other vaccines, medicine, or food will likely experience the same outcome with this one.
British regulators warned Wednesday that people who have a history of serious allergic reactions shouldn’t receive the new Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine as they investigate two adverse reactions that occurred on the first day of the country’s mass vaccination program.
Updated February 5, 2021
Shipments of vaccines will be headed to pharmacies in mid-February under a federal program that aims to get more people vaccinated quickly. Twenty-one “national pharmacy partners and networks of independent pharmacies representing over 40,000 pharmacy locations nationwide" are taking part in the program, according to a government fact sheet, which includes a list of all participating pharmacies or networks.
In phase one of the distribution plan, 1 million doses will be sent out to about 6,500 stores, including Walgreens, CVS, Walmart, Publix pharmacies, and others, starting on February 11.
So far, yes. Data released in Britain suggests the Pfizer-Biotech version is accompanied by fewer side-effects.
Yes. The Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have so far proven to be effective against known variants of the coronavirus, but they are less potent against the variant first identified in South Africa. That variant has only been confirmed in three people in the United States so far, but the country’s surveillance is thin and may be missing other cases.
AstraZeneca version of the vaccine works best against the COVID variant first seen in the U.K. A paper written by researchers at Oxford University found that all versions of the vaccine offer some protection against the variant, known as B.1.1.7. The AstraZeneca vaccine proved 74.6% effective against the new strain – the most protective by far. The paper has yet to be peer reviewed, and the company is expected to seek approval in the U.S. by March.
The Johnson & Johnson version could arrive stateside as soon as mid-March. This version of the vaccine requires only one dose to be effective. In clinical trials, the J&J version was found to be 72% effective against the virus, but only 57% in South Africa, where another variant is spreading quickly.