Since my last post, one vaccine has been approved for use during the pandemic and another is likely to be approved within the week. This is great news and makes me hopeful for a more normal Christmas season next year.

The question we keep getting asked, is 1) Will you get the vaccine? 2) Will your office give out the vaccine? and 3) When can I get the vaccine?

-1) Yes I will get the vaccine, as will my family. Because of my job I’ll end up getting it before them (see below)

-2) Yes I think we will give out the vaccine. I’m not entirely sure how the roll out will be handled once there is enough to start giving out to the general public. I have applied for the ability to do so (for my own patients), but they could certainly decide that it makes more sense for small practices like mine to refer our patients to a more centralized location for efficiency sake.

-3) This is a longer answer.

Here are Michigan’s phases of vaccine rollout.

Phase 1A is to health care workers and nursing home residents. Just like when the stewardess tells you to put your own oxygen mask on first before helping others, we have to protect the frontline healthcare workers. Because this is the first phase, it will be the one with the least amount of vaccine to go around and so it is broken down even further into more specific priorities. For example, I’m one of the last to be vaccinated due to my comparatively low risk, outpatient office job, compared to my colleagues that work directly with COVID in the hospital who will be some of the first.

Phase 1B is to essential workers. It appears that teachers and critical infrastructure workers will be first in line here, the people that keep society running and can't do it from home.

Phase 1C would be those with high risk conditions(diabetes, obesity, etc), high risk environments (jail, homeless shelters, etc) and older adults (over 65).

Phase 2 is everyone else, over age 16.

Keep in mind these phases are not completely distinct - that is to say that 1A probably won't be completely finished when 1B starts, there will be overlap. The point here is that those at highest risk will be prioritized to get the vaccine first.

No one really knows for sure, and it depends on how many vaccines become available in the next couple months (and how many manufacturers are producing them), but based on what I’m reading, I would think phase 2 will happen in April at the earliest, potentially May.

Another question I get: Will I be forced to get the vaccine?

No, I think not. I’ve seen absolutely nothing indicating that anyone in any level of government is advocating mandating the vaccine. Even my own hospital system is not mandating it, but simply strongly encouraging it. I would encourage you to get it, when you are able to. I think its a good thing.

References:

https://www.michigan.gov/documents/coronavirus/MI_COVID-19_Vaccination_Prioritization_Guidance_710349_7.pdf

I’ve gotten a lot of questions in the office from patients about the news these past couple week about Pfizer’s and now Moderna’s early results. Its pretty common for a vaccine trial to take an early look at results before the trial finishes and these early results were a welcome bit of good news, efficacy that far exceeded what we had hoped for and a side effect profile similar to other vaccinations (injection site reactions mainly). I get asked a lot if the COVID vaccine is something I will recommend/take myself/give to my family. My answer until 2 weeks ago was “We’ll see” , and now I’m cautiously optimistic that the answer will be “Yes”. If the final data when it comes out is as promising as the preliminary data, I will take it without hesitation.

Keep in mind there are other vaccines in the works as well. What is exciting to me is that most of them share the same target on the virus, which could mean good things for their efficacy as well. We will need as many manufacturers as possible operating at full capacity to vaccinate as many people as possible. There are a lot of people out there and it takes time to make these things.