Which New Yorker will be vaccinated with the virus first?

Health care workers. Essential worker. Resident of a nursing home. A New Yorker who lives in the area that suffered the most damage.

These are one of the various groups that the New York Public Health Authority wants to prioritize. Coronavirus vaccination..

On Wednesday, Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said the state would receive the first batch of vaccines (170,000 doses from pharmaceutical company Pfizer), awaiting federal approval.

A spokesman for Mayor Bill de Blasio said on Wednesday that New York City expects to receive about 480,000 doses by early January. Spokesman Bill Nadart said about half were from Pfizer’s vaccine and half were from another pharmaceutical company, Moderna.

Kuomo said he did not know when the vaccine would be widely available. Uncertainty surrounding availability is just one element of what has been shaped to become the largest mass vaccination campaign in the United States in at least the last half century.

How many times do you take New York first?

Pfizer About 25 million times By the end of this year, Moderna says it expects to produce more than 20 million doses for the US market. A total of 45 million doses is sufficient for 22.5 million people, as each person requires two doses at intervals of several weeks.

Cuomo said the first batch from Moderna should arrive later this month. Both companies still need FDA approval.

The federal government said the initial dose would be distributed to the states Based on the size of the adult population..

The CDC provides a broad framework for groups to prioritize, but there is plenty of room for New York State and New York City to make their own decisions.

The hospital is already preparing to receive the first shipment, even if you don’t know how many times to take it. Northwell Health, the state’s largest hospital system, was said to be notified 48 hours before the initial allocation of Pfizer vaccines shipped from the Michigan distribution center, said the chief pharmacy officer of the hospital system. Onysis Stephas said.

The vaccine arrives in a suitcase-sized box filled with dry ice. Inside is a small box containing a frozen vaccine vial.

With so much uncertainty, Dr. Stephas said he was unsure whether to use these doses quickly or reserve half for use as a second dose.

Who will be vaccinated first?

The CDC Advisory Board on Tuesday recommended that the first person to receive the vaccine should be a healthcare professional, along with the residents and staff of the nursing home.

The mayor’s spokesman, Neidhardt, said that health care workers engaged in high-risk activities such as working on the coronavirus floor in a hospital or living or working in a nursing home would be given an estimated dose of 480,000 doses. Stated.

“It is important to protect health care workers so they can go to work and continue to care for the sick.” Jessica Justman, a professor of epidemiology at Columbia University’s Merman School of Public Health, said.

Nursing home residents are prioritized for other reasons. They are at high risk of dying from the coronavirus. Nursing care residents and staff account for approximately 40 percent of viral deaths in the United States.

On Wednesday, Mr. Cuomo and his aides said the first shipment of the vaccine would go to nursing home residents and staff, as well as front-line healthcare professionals. (The Governor’s Office said the second dose of Pfizer vaccine and the first shipment of Moderna vaccine would arrive in late December.)

According to the governor’s office and the state, nursing homes have about 85,000 residents. I talked to the CDC There are “more than 800,000 important healthcare professionals”. This includes home health assistants and staff at hospitals, elderly homes and ambulance companies. Overall, it’s more than 4 percent of the state’s population.

There may be some overlap between the 480,000 doses that New York City expects to receive and the 170,000 doses that Mr. Cuomo said on Wednesday.

Experts say it can take some time to get through high-priority groups. The hospital has already decided which employees are eligible for vaccination after the first shipment arrives.

For example, the Mount Sinai Health System includes several caretakers and food delivery personnel working in the emergency department, and an intensive care unit for healthcare professionals who will receive some of the earliest vaccines, Susan Mashni. Said the Chief Pharmacy Officer. system.

Who is it after that?

The state of New York told the CDC that the next group of vaccine “targets” would be “other frontline essential workers, medically at-risk individuals and individuals aged 65 and over.”

A draft plan released by the state in October put people in more than 12 categories into one of five priority groups. Grocery workers were more advanced than “individuals under the age of 65 with high-risk comorbidities” and they were more advanced than certain groups of mandatory workers.

Kuomo also expressed concern that low-income and minority areas may not be adequately serviced by vaccines, and federal immunization programs “overlook black, brown, and poor communities.” “Repeat on Wednesday.

The draft plan submitted by New York City to the CDC raised the possibility that race could influence the city’s vaccination plans. Black and Hispanic New Yorkers died of the virus at an imbalanced rate. The draft said, “Vaccine planning and allocation decisions must be made through a lens that intersects with anti-racists.”

It remains unclear what that really means. A city official said the plan was still underway and spoke on condition of anonymity, saying there was some debate about prioritizing about 27 neighbors who were disproportionately hit in the spring. Officials said many of these areas have predominantly black or Hispanic residents.

However, officials added that the plan was heavily dependent on the amount of vaccine the city received in the coming months.

In the past, the city has Released list in the neighborhood It is believed to have been particularly hit.

How about everyone else?

These priority categories include millions of people across the state. However, it is unclear when the vaccine will be widely available to everyone.

By early next year, Pfizer and Moderna may be able to ship about 70 million shipments a month. Told the Washington Post.. By then, other vaccines may be approved. Americans who do not fit into the specialized category Vaccinated in spring.

There are so many uncertainties, some of which are unavoidable. However, there is also a growing sense that authorities may provide a clearer picture of what to expect.

“Whatever the plan, it’s not really shared with the general public,” said James, an HIV activist and organizer of a coalition of healthcare professionals and supporters called the Covid-19 Working Group in New York. Krelenstein said.

He worried that confusion and lack of information might contribute to “people don’t feel they have a fair position.”

The city’s interim plan requires partial reliance on existing vaccine distribution infrastructure, including clinics and pharmacies. This means that many New Yorkers may be vaccinated with the Covid-19 vaccine at the nearest CVS.

It raises a potential issue: asking people to wait at a pharmacy counter can lead to more communication. “We don’t want people to get crowded indoors,” said Professor Justman, who said outdoor vaccination sites made a lot of sense in this pandemic.

How does the hospital prepare for the arrival of the vaccine?

Pfizer vaccines should be kept at very low temperatures around minus 70 degrees Celsius. The hospital system is buying a new ultra-low temperature freezer in preparation and looking for an existing freezer in the lab.

And they started preparing what to do the moment the first cargo arrived.

“It is said that we have time to unload it from a special box into the freezer,” said Dr. Mashni.

Already, the city’s health department has asked hospitals to regularly report the temperature of the cryogenic freezer so that it can maintain temperatures at least minus 70 degrees Celsius indefinitely.

However, vaccination can be kept at a more normal temperature of 2-8 degrees Celsius for 5 days before its use. According to Pfizer..

Due to the stringent refrigeration requirements of Pfizer vaccines, Pfizer vaccines are largely directed to cities early on and may further determine who will be vaccinated in New York.

“I think it probably makes sense for the Modana vaccine to go rural and the Pfizer vaccine to go to larger institutions,” said Dr. Bruce Farber, an infectious disease expert and state member at Northwell Health. Told. Task force to review vaccines..