Flagler County Health Department Chief Bob Snyder is an optimist by nature, often finding a silver lining in the grimmest numbers as the coronavirus pandemic has unfolded. Today he was flat-out giddy. He described for the first time how the covid-19 vaccine will be available in Flagler this spring, and how it will be rolled out across the county in three phases, at no charge to recipients.
Between those getting the vaccines and those who already have antibodies from contracting the disease, the goal is to have 65 to 70 percent immunity, so that by this time next year, society may well have returned to normal, celebrating Thanksgiving with no fear of hugs, jam-packed travel or or crowded and poorly-ventilated dining rooms.
Snyder had another dose of better news today as well: the much-touted, endlessly awaited rapid tests for Covid-19 are finally in the county. The health department took delivery of 1,000 Abbott Binax Now tests on Monday. They will be used primarily to test students and school staff–where some rapid tests have already been in use–then to complement community testing sites. The nasal-swab test produces results in 20 minutes. If it’s positive, the individual is immediately re-tested with the more customary, non-rapid test, which almost always confirms the first diagnosis, and quarantined.
State and county health officials have been working on the roll-out plan since mid-October. Two companies this month announced that their vaccines are 95 percent effective: Pfizer and Moderna. The Food and Drug Administration has yet to approve either. But approval is expected.
There’s no way to know which of the two vaccines will be made available in Flagler, though one of them–Pfizer’s–requires ultra-cold freezing when it is stored. “We do not have the capabilities to do that. If we are sent the Pfizer, then I know we’ll be getting a freezer along with it,” Snyder said.
The vaccine must be administered in two doses, 28 days apart, to be effective. (By 95 percent effective, it means that out of the thousands of volunteers who took part in Moderna’s trial, and the 95 who contracted the coronavirus, 90 had been given the placebo. Only five who contracted the virus had received the vaccine.)
The vaccination system will closely follow the method used for covid-19 testing in the early days of the pandemic, when first responders and the like had priority. So they will again with vaccines. The first to be inoculated will be health care workers, public health workers, firefighters, cops, and personnel and residents in nursing homes and assisted living facilities, where the disease proportionately has taken its heaviest toll.
That done, Phase 2 will extend to residents at large through what are now Covid-19 testing sites, urgent care facilities and the county health department in what Snyder describes as “mass vaccination clinics.” He expects a large number of doses to be available for that phase.
“We’ll have vaccination distribution sites scattered throughout the community with our team of nurses and staff,” Snyder said. “I can envision this being a drive-through opportunity so that social distancing will continue to take place as we administer the vaccine.” As with testing, the Flagler County Emergency Management department is expected to be closely involved. Snyder was speaking with Emergency Management’s Jonathan Lord today, he said.
It’s no small task. To reach 70 percent immunity, it means that 80,000 Flagler County residents will have to be inoculated or would have had to have contracted the virus and survived. So far, Flagler County has 2,447 confirmed cases of Covid-19, barely 2 percent of the population. Even assuming that 10 times as many people have actually contracted it but don’t know it (the virus is asymptomatic in up to 50 percent of carriers, according to the Centers for Disease Control), that still leaves 56,000 people requiring 112,000 doses, each one of which is the equivalent of an appointment and a shot that must be rigorously documented through Florida Shots.
That’s assuming the vaccine will make it to Flagler in massive numbers by spring. Pfizer and Moderna are estimating that they will have 45 million doses by January, with hundreds of millions of doses available by spring, though some challenges of scale remain. Operation Warp Speed, the federal government’s Manhattan project-like investment toward rapid vaccine development, had set a goal of 300 million doses by the end of 2020. Pfizer had projected making 100 million doses by the end of 2020, but fell short. Pfizer’s vaccine was developed jointly with BioNTech. The two companies will be paid $1.95 billion by the federal government once the FDA approves the vaccine and the first 100 million doses are delivered.
The third phase would resemble times of testing troth when demand falls because most will have gotten inoculated, but supplies remain. Part of the roll-out in Phase 2 may take place in schools, Snyder said, again raising the question of whether the school board will facilitate or hamper vaccination efforts. The Flagler County School Board has been of two minds in the matter, not objecting to certain vaccines being offered at school while objecting to others–namely, the HPV vaccine.
When it comes to the Covid vaccine, Snyder says it should be a different story. “I believe this would be welcomed because bottom line this is life saving,” he said. “I cannot imagine a government or school board member leader dismissing the broad distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. To me that would be reprehensible, and it would be dangerous.”
The vaccine is effective immediately. There is still some question about how long immunity lasts, though new data released just this week suggests that immunity could last for several years, possibly decades. But the findings are based on research that has not yet been peer-reviewed.
Asked if, once individuals have received their vaccine, they can doff their masks, burn them and abandon social distancing, Snyder was cautious. “We’re going to require that they adhere to public health measures until at least their second shot is given.”
Other caveats: first, both state and local health departments touted the rapid test for months, promising it would be available “soon” month after month, and it never was until just now. Similar complications in the logistics of the vaccine roll-out could delay it past spring, the way earlier, sunny Pfizer projections proved unworkable. No company and no nation have ever undertaken a roll-out of this magnitude in history–a rollout that must be coordinated with the health departments of 50 different states, and in turn with the health departments of thousands of counties within those states.
Second, the pandemic is still raging, its third wave on an upswing across the country, in Florida and in Flagler, where–in Flagler–it had its highest seven-day number of infections since summer. Cases have risen significantly in schools in the last 10 days, with 18 cases between students and school staff last week, and 19 in just the first four days of this week. Four cases were announced just today. Ten of the cases this week have been at Flagler Palm Coast High School–six students and four staffers, including Principal Tom Russell and Assistant Principal Tousiant Roberson.
Palm Coast government is seeing its highest number of employees affected in one way or another by the pandemic currently: 29. The number includes those who have the virus, those caring for someone who has it, those who are suspected of having it, and those out sick.
There were two small spikes at assisted living facilities again, including four staff members at Tuscan Gardens, but “everyone jumped on it immediately, including Tuscan Gardens,” Snyder said. “These employees are isolated, quarantined, safe, as are the remaining residents and staff.”
Otherwise, he said, “It is community spread and it is everywhere.” And difficult months, possibly the grimmest of the pandemic, are ahead before the salve of a vaccine.
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MAGA Peoples!! MAGA!! says
We can finally being to MAGA, how ironic, haha.. Hallelujah! Pack your bags Orange rump, worst president since god knows when, James Buchanan maybe? I think Trump even made him look angelic and full of leadership. Rump was so bad, he divided his own party (into embarrassment), let alone the country. He’s still trying to win the election, what a serious “L” for loser, haha!!
snapperhead says
I heard the virus was supposed to disappear after the election. It’s was all a hoax by the lamestream media and Dummycrats to rig the election against potentate Trump.
Rxx says
Yeah all the anti-vaxxers and Covid-deniers will totally take this vaccine. This is gonna be so great. Buckle up, kids!
joe says
Good that there is a plan in the works.
One suggestion to help with distribution – all those who think the virus is a hoax, please wait till the rest of us get vaccinated. Watch the accounts of nurses who have had patients literally dying of COVID in front of them, all the while insisting that the virus is a hoax and you’ll understand the damage this kind of unreality is doing to our country.
Jimbo99 says
Back to the concept of essential vs non-essential for who gets saved first. Put anyone on the back burner on simmer and chances are many won’t ever be lining up for it ? Covid vaccine like the flu vaccine thing ?
Nurse says
So wear a mask from now until March. Such a simple and painless process.
It beats having a tube down your throat. BELIEVE ME!
Also a nurse says
Nurse: You are absolutely on spot, I can’t understand why people cannot do such a simple act towards prevention, some of these nail salons should be shut down as their own employees are either not wearing mask or wearing them improperly hanging down to their chin, and they don’t follow the CDC guidelines of cleaning up their stations following a customer, they should be ashamed of themselves!
Dan says
March is when the vaccine is available to essential workers to start, then people with underlying conditions, you should be wearing your mask till 2022 if you really want to curve the virus. Not enough people will recieve the vaccine at first to stop wearing masks right away.
WellWellWell says
Honestly, there are real questions about this vaccine. I’m not an anti-vaxxer by any means. I just rolled up my sleeves for my flu shot two weeks ago. Honestly, I have a problem with how quickly this was rolled out. China released the genome on January 11, two days later Moderna announced they had sequenced the virus and was ready for phase 1 of a vaccine trial within a few weeks. I understand modern science is not 1800’s science. Things happen at a much faster clip. However, it happened a little too fast for my liking.
When they developed the vaccine for Ebola, they worked on it for at least a decade. Ebola, has many strains, but each of those strains is fairly stable. For example, when you have Ebola Zaire they know because of how the virus looks under the microscope. I do understand they were trying to target all variations of Ebola with the vaccine and that will take longer, however, the stability of the many strains of Ebola did not produce a working vaccine in 10 months time unlike COVID.
COVID, a newly discovered virus, where Moderna and Pfizer used a new technology and created a vaccine in record time. What did they do to create this? What’s in it? How will it affect the body after 12 months? When will you need another dose because call me a skeptic but nothing vaccinates for life, not even measles as I was told by my doctor to come in and get a booster, even though I received my vaccination in 1989. What happens after you’ve taken this vaccine two time, three times, or ten times? Personally, I don’t think there has been enough testing on people to know what the true side effects are because only certain people sign up for the trials. How does it affect cancer patients? Those with chronic illness? This is a new type of vaccination. What sort of allergens are present? I can’t just take a pill or shot. I have to know the active and inactive ingredients and how it was “brewed” for lack of going too scientific.
I’m not some conspiracy theorist that thinks dead babies is in this or they are injecting a tracking device into my body. Frankly, I wouldn’t care if aborted fetal cells were in this or stem cells. None of that bothers me. What bothers me is the speed at which this developed and the fact that both companies combined have tested their respective vaccinations on less than 75,000 people and deem it safe and ready to go for mass distribution. By the release schedule, I will be the last one to get the vaccine anyway. I’m not high risk, no underlying health conditions, nothing pre-existing, not a frontline worker or someone deemed essential by trade. I’m someone that does WFH and goes out grocery shopping once a week. I’m fine letting others take the vaccine and then see what the long-term side effects and allergens are before I get on board.
Cipro, a black box drug that some doctors prescribe like candy for simple things like a UTI (not all UTI are the same), has very serious long-term side effects in some people. I cannot take it. I have ligament issues where they snap very easy (one wrong move is sometimes all it takes) but also heal very quickly at the same time. One of the warnings of Cipro is ligament damage, including snapping and tearing in some people. There was a time when Cipro was deemed totally safe without any known side effects, except the common ones assigned to many medication. Then one day people started experiencing these odd issues, and not just ligaments, but a plethora of issues. It took years for them to tie it back to Cipro as the cause for their problems that occurred months, sometimes a year or more after taking the medication, and now it has a black-box warning for use only if necessary. So you see, just because they deem this vaccine safe in 75,000 people after only 3-4 months of actual trial testing isn’t enough for me. I’ll look at it in 2021 after I read all the scientific journals and peer-reviewed statements about the long-term ramifications of the vaccine on the human body. I’m just fine wearing a piece of cloth on my face going to the grocery store once a week, or to the gas station. Cloth has never hurt me but medications have.
Agkistrodon says
And also all those who said they would not take a vaccine that was made during Trump times, back of the line as well right?
Jane Gentile-Youd says
The best news couldn’t come at a better time. A big thank you to our Health Department for your passionate dedication to making sure that we are kept as safe as possible from this monster
Maybe you'd be dead last says
[quote]The vaccination system will closely follow the method used for covid-19 testing in the early days of the pandemic, when first responders and the like had priority.[/quote]
Are you kidding me?
All I remember is seeing celebrity & sports personnel getting tested multiple times, again & again, and what’s worse, getting results instantly while the rest of us waited a week or more for results.
So, yea, great plan there charley……….
Had anyone listened to Bill Gates just yesterday, you would have heard how puzzled (and troubled) he was that there is no “NATIONAL” system already in place!
National database
Enter your information
You would be given an approximation of when, and what group you are in, and an estimated timeframe you’d be inoculated.
(Should you so want to, of course)
BUT NO!!!!!!!!
Let’s leave it to the STATE politicians to tell us how great they’ve been doing
Bullcrap!
Set it up NOW
So when I see that a healthy baseball player (and his whole family) is bragging of their vaccine shot, while the school bus driver is denied, I can tell you all to shove it!
mawmaw says
Hope the County will follow the CDC distribution guide lines
Silvio Di Gregorio says
Regarding phase 2, since phase 1 appears to be protecting those most vulnerable and who deal with the virus directly, is there any plan in phase 2 to provide vaccinations to seniors, who are also most vulnerable, prior to the general population. If the goal is to protest those most vulnerable that would make sense.
Please Read says
thats what the article says…
Danm50 says
We have done mass immunization previously, like the Sabin polio vaccine in the 60’s without internet ,cell phones or face book. This should be a walk in the park.