Indiana’s frontline health care workers and long-term care facility residents could be vaccinated against COVID-19 by the end of the year. State Health Commissioner Dr. Kris Box said Wednesday that both Pfizer and Moderna have now applied for an FDA emergency use authorization, and Indiana is preparing to receive limited supplies as early as mid-December.
“This is an incredible blessing that we already have two vaccines that we are ready to actually start injecting people with, in the month of December, when this pandemic just really started about nine to 10 months ago,” Box said during Wednesday’s press conference. “So this is incredible. And I know some people, in general, never get vaccinated, and that is your choice and your decision. But I will tell you, this is the way we get back to the new normal. This is the way that we are able to resume our lives as Hoosiers.”
But some Hoosiers may be left out, at least in the beginning. Indiana Department of Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Lindsay Weaver said the initial trials only included those age 18 and up, and the Pfizer vaccine trial is just now being extended to children as young as 12. Dr. Box also noted that there’s no safety information regarding pregnant women for either vaccine yet.
“For right now, I think that’s going to have to be a personal decision that individuals make,” Box said. “I do know that among our original health care workers, in addition to our ER workers and those that work in the ICUs, everyone who works on our labor and delivery units will be top priority to get immunized, to help protect our pregnant women and newborns.”
One challenge is that the Pfizer vaccine has to be shipped and stored at ultra-low temperatures, but Dr. Weaver said nearly 50 hospitals around the state are ready. “Not all of our hospitals will have the freezers, those ultra-low freezers, to keep the vaccines in, and so the places that don’t will actually keep them in the thermal shippers that will come with Pfizer,” Weaver explained. “And then, we’ve already received some detailed information, exactly, you know, when you take the vaccine out, it needs to thaw at room temperature for 30 minutes or two hours in a refrigerator, and they’ve been given all that information.”
She noted that detailed temperature logs will have to be taken. Weaver will have more information about the vaccine distribution next Wednesday.
