7 things we know about the coronavirus vaccine roll out in N.J. – NJ.com

There continues to be hopeful news about coronavirus vaccines.

Pfizer’s vaccine was approved for use in the United Kingdom on Wednesday, and the first doses may be administered in that country within days.

That vaccine, as well as one by Moderna, are waiting for U.S. health authorities to give the okay for use here. It could happen any day now.

But even when the vaccines are approved for use, they won’t be widely available immediately.

“The news is really good. It’s real and it’s good,” said Gov. Phil Murphy at his Wednesday briefing. “We have a long way to go. There are a lot of complexities. There’s still a lot of execution before us.”

Here’s what we know about how any vaccine program could roll out in New Jersey.

1. Who will get the vaccine first and when?

Vaccines will be rolled out nationwide in phases, starting with health care workers and nursing home residents, a government panel said Tuesday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sets Phase One-a as individuals serving in healthcare settings who are at risk. Then Phase One-b will include essential workers who cannot socially distance in the workplace — such as grocery and retail workers — and people at increased risk for severe COVID-19 illness, including people over age 65, said Anne Hewitt, professor and acting chair of the Seton Hall Department of Interprofessional Health Sciences and Health Administration.

New Jersey is following the federal guidelines, with the Health Department noting it has always considered long-term care facility residents and employees to be a priority.

“Our plan is to begin where you’d want us to begin — with health care workers, essential frontline workers, vulnerable populations and expand out from there,” Murphy said Wednesday.

The state has said it expects the first batch of 130,000 doses to arrive in the third week of December, with a second batch of 130,000 doses arriving the following week. Another roughly 100,000 doses could be delivered at the very end of the month.

“Information from the federal government is rapidly changing and the Department will share this information with the public when it is confirmed,” said Donna Leusner, spokeswoman for the N.J. Department of Health.

Murphy said at the briefing that he expects Pfizer’s batch will come in first, assuming the vaccine gets the Emergency Use Authorization approval from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), with Moderna’s vaccine coming in a week later.

2. When will the general public get the vaccine?

A lot will depend on how many doses the state receives and how quickly, plus how the distribution of the vaccine is organized.

“The general public should not expect to have access to the vaccine before mid-to-late spring by most estimates,” said Stephanie Silvera, and epidemiologist and professor of public health at Montclair State University.

Murphy said Wednesday that April or May would be a realistic timetable for the general public.

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People will need to wait it out, experts and officials said.

“A major challenge will be making sure that the `worried-well’ develop patience and wait their turn for the vaccine,” Hewitt said.

Even if New Jersey reaches its goal of vaccinating 70% of our population of 9 million during this initial drive, the virus will still be out there.

While the vaccinations have been shown to reduce moderate and even severe disease symptoms, they haven’t yet shown they eliminate the potential for transmission, said Henry Raymond, an epidemiologist and associate professor at Rutgers School of Public Health.

“They’re not necessarily saying someone who has been vaccinated could not infect someone else. They are going to need more observation,” Raymond said. “I think what’s prudent — and probably not what everyone wants to hear even as we roll this vaccine out — people should still be doing the things they have done to mitigate acquiring or transmitting the virus.”

Keep masking, social distancing, hand washing and avoid settings where there are lots of people in enclosed spaces, he said.

3. Which vaccine will I get?

That depends.

The FDA’s Emergency Use Authorization could come at any time for Pfizer and Moderna, and there are many other vaccine candidates in the pipeline, experts said.

But even after approval, distribution will depend a lot on who can manage the storage requirements of each vaccine.

The Pfizer vaccine requires storage at minus 70 degrees Celsius — a temperature not every health care facility is equipped to provide. The Moderna vaccine only needs a storage temperature of minus 20 Celsius, which is like a regular freezer. Vaccines being tested by Johnson & Johnson and Novavax can be stored at between 2 to 8 degrees Celsius, which is the temperature of a regular refrigerator.

The ability of health care facilities to handle the cold chain requirements will have an impact on who will ultimately distribute the vaccines, health officials said, at least in the short run.

Six N.J. hospitals with ultra cold storage capabilities — Hackensack University Medical Center, Morristown Medical Center, University Hospital in Newark, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, AtlantiCare Regional Medical Center in Atlantic City and Cooper University Hospital in Camden — have been chosen to receive the Pfizer vaccine as a part of a dry run by Operation Warp Speed, according to North Jersey.com. No shipment dates have been determined, and the vaccines won’t be used until the FDA authorization comes through.

So the vaccine you receive will depend on how quickly they are approved and how fast they can be distributed to different providers in the state.

4. Where can I get a vaccine?

You should have several options.

The N.J. Department of Health said last month that at least half of the hospitals in the state have the capacity to handle the temperature requirements of the Pfizer vaccine.

Some pharmacies have the capacity also.

CVS Pharmacy said it will be able to “appropriately store vaccines at the manufacturer’s required temperature range,” while Walgreens said it is expanding its ultra-cold storage capabilities.

Pharmacies that can’t handle the super low temperatures for the Pfizer vaccine should be able to accommodate the Moderna one, as they do the flu vaccine.

It is unlikely that you will be able to get the Pfizer vaccine at the doctor’s office since most don’t have sub-zero storage. It is possible you will be able to get the Moderna vaccine, or some that are still in trials, from your doctor.

Additionally, the state will set up drive-up vaccination sites that will resemble the coronavirus testing sites we’ve seen at colleges and areas with large parking lots, such as the PNC Arts Center in Holmdel.

“We expect large scale vaccination sites to be one of many places where people will be able to get vaccinated along with local health departments, urgent care facilities, pharmacies, community health centers and mobile sites,” the Health Department told NJ Advance Media last month.

5. Will I have to get a second shot?

Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require a second dose between 21 and 28 days after the first one.

For both vaccines, the efficacy was reported for two doses, and there is little data available for efficacy with just one dose, Silvera said.

The current recommendation is for two doses.

“To ensure maximum protection, everyone needs to follow up with the second shot,” Hewitt agreed. “You will not receive full protection coverage without both shots.”

Subsequent vaccines may have only one dose, but those are still in clinical trials.

6. What about children?

Children will have to wait longer to get the vaccine, public health experts said.

Moderna said Wednesday it would soon start testing its vaccine on children aged 12 to 17, and Pfizer said it has similar plans.

“Until those studies have been conducted and the data are available for review by the FDA, children will not be eligible to be vaccinated,” Silvera said.

7. Will I have to pay for the vaccine?

Individuals will not have to pay for the vaccine itself, whether or not they have insurance.

The federal government will be giving the vaccines away for free to those who will administer it, said Karyn Schwartz, a senior fellow at the Kaiser Family Foundation.

“Once distributed, individuals will be able to get COVID-19 vaccine(s) without having to pay any cost sharing, due, in part, to changes made by Congress and CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) to the laws and regulations that typically govern insurance coverage for vaccines,” said a recent Kaiser report co-authored by Schwartz.

However, Schwartz said the health care providers who are giving the shots can bill insurance companies for administering the vaccine.

“The (insurance) plan will not be reimbursed by the government for vaccine administration,” Schwartz said. “In terms of an office visit, if the provider gives the vaccine in an office visit and the primary purpose of the office visit is to get the vaccine… then the office visit is considered a preventive service and must be covered.”

It is not clear how coverage will be handled for New Jersey residents who eventually get vaccinated at a site set up by the state. “The mega sites insurance process has not been finalized yet,” said Leusner from the state health department.

For the uninsured, providers may bill a federal fund for vaccine-related services, the report said.

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Karin Price Mueller may be reached at KPriceMueller@NJAdvanceMedia.com.