The novel coronavirus vaccine is expected to arrive in San Diego County soon. The Pfizer vaccine that’s coming is administered via two shots in the arm and research has shown that it’s about 95% effective.
Distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine will be done in phases. The vaccine allocation was determined by the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on the distribution of all vaccines.
Phase 1A, 1B and 1C:
1A – Critical Care Health Workers, Long-Term Care Facility Residents and Employees
1B – Essential Workers
1C – Adults with Underlying Medical Conditions and People Over the Age of 65
The County is expected to get about 28,000 doses of a vaccine made by Pfizer in the next few days, after it receives emergency use authorization. Critical care health workers will be the first people to get it, followed by long-term care facility residents and employees. As other pharmaceutical companies receive emergency use authorization, more vaccines will arrive in the region.
The initial distribution will not be sufficient to vaccinate all people in these populations. However, the state anticipates the second round of vaccines to follow about three weeks after the first round.
If the ACIP approves the remaining recommendations, and once people in the first two groups in Phase 1A are vaccinated and more COVID-19 vaccine doses are available, they will go to essential workers (Phase 1B). These are people who work in education, food and agriculture, police officers, firefighters, correctional officers and transportation workers, among others.
After that, the priority will be to vaccinate adults with underlying medical conditions and people over the age of 65 because they are at higher risk of developing serious complications from COVID-19 (Phase 1C).
Phase 2:
Immunizations will then be available for children and young adults under the age of 30 and then for critical workers not included in Phase 1 or Phase 2.
Phase 3:
The final phase will be people of all ages who live in the United States.
The phases could be revised as the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices determines if some groups are at higher risk from COVID-19 and therefore would need to be vaccinated sooner.
The CDC anticipates that by June of 2021, everyone wanting to get vaccinated against COVID-19 should be able to do so.
Is the COVID-19 Vaccine Safe?
The vaccine is safe, but about 10% to 15% of people may have some side effects such as fever, fatigue, headache and muscle pain. These symptoms should go away on their own after a couple of days.
Once people in the United States start to get vaccinated, the CDC will expand its safety surveillance to make sure the vaccine is working as it should.
“This initial COVID-19 vaccine distribution will give us one more tool to try to slow the spread of the pandemic,” said Wilma Wooten, M.D., M.P.H., County public health officer. “However, it’s important that people continue practicing the recommendations we’ve given to prevent getting and spreading the virus until we have achieved herd immunity.”
Source: County of San Diego
