On Wednesday, the County of San Diego announced a plan for the distribution of the novel coronavirus vaccine, which is expected to arrive in the next few days. Initially, the county will receive about 28,000 doses of the vaccine developed by Pfizer after it receives emergency use authorization.
Phase 1A: The first phase of distribution will be to critical care health workers, followed by long-term care facility residents and employees. While the first batch of doses will not cover all of the people in this category, the state expects another round of vaccines to follow about three weeks after the first.
Phase 1B: After everyone in the Phase 1 groups are vaccinated, and when more doses are available, the next group to receive vaccines will be essential workers, including: education, food and agriculture workers, police, firefighters, correctional officers, transportation workers, etc.
Phase 1C: The next phase of priority will be to vaccinate adults with underlying medical conditions and people over 65 years old.
Phase 2: Children and young adults under the age of 30, and then critical workers not included in Phase 1.
Phase 3: People of all ages who live in the United States.
Allocation of the vaccine was determined by the federal Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP), which advises the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The phases could be revised by the ACIP if they determine some groups are at higher risk.
Is the vaccine safe?
Public health officials believe that the vaccine is safe, although 10-15% of people may have some side effects such as fever, fatigue, headache and muscle pain. These symptoms should go away on their own after a couple of days. “This initial COVID-19 vaccine distribution will give us one more tool to try to slow the spread of the pandemic,” said Wilma Wooten, M.D., M.P.H., County public health officer. “However, it’s important that people continue practicing the recommendations we’ve given to prevent getting and spreading the virus until we have achieved herd immunity.”
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