Florida's coronavirus vaccines, explained - Tampa Bay Times

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Coronavirus vaccines could arrive in Florida any day, experts say, and there are lots of questions surrounding the drugs.

The Tampa Bay Times is working to answer some of them here by talking with doctors and public health experts. We’ll cover inquiries about the drugs themselves, like how they were developed and will be stored, as well as how they might be distributed.

What are you wondering? Tell us below, and we’ll try to find answers.

Why should I be vaccinated?

Vaccines protect you and those around you, said Michael Teng, an associate professor at the University of South Florida who is an expert in immunology and vaccine development.

The drugs help your body fight off disease, so you don’t get sick or infect others. The more people who get vaccinated, the fewer hosts there are for a disease.

“We want to create herd immunity, which is a protective bubble around ourselves and our community,” said Jay Wolfson, a professor of public health at USF. “We can only do that when enough people have gotten vaccinated or actually gotten the disease.”

How are the vaccines stored?

The COVID-19 vaccine created by drug manufacturers Pfizer and BioNTech must be stored at minus 70 degrees Celsius (minus 94 Fahrenheit), which, according to NPR, is “colder than winter in Antarctica.” The vaccine created by drug manufacturer Moderna must be chilled, too, but only to about minus 20 degrees Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit), which is closer to the temperature of a household freezer.

In Florida, five hospitals have been chosen to receive the vaccine first, including Tampa General, Tampa Bay’s largest hospital. The others are AdventHealth Orlando, UF Health Jacksonville, Memorial Regional Hospital in Hollywood and Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.

Top administrators at Tampa General and AdventHealth Tampa said last week that their facilities are all set to store and distribute the vaccine as needed. Each hospital has freezers that can hold tens of thousands of vials of vaccine.

Pharmacist Maureen Lavin talks about the Ultra Cold freezer at Tampa General Hospital that will be used to store the COVID-19 vaccine is pictured on Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020 in Tampa. [ LUIS SANTANA | Times ]

Who will get the vaccines first?

Health care workers and long-term care facility residents should gain access to COVID-19 vaccines first, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. That recommendation was made Dec. 2 by a group of medical and public health experts on the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices.

Health care workers are defined as “paid and unpaid people serving in health care settings who have the potential for direct or indirect exposure to patients or infectious materials,” according to the CDC. Long-term care facility residents are defined as “adults who reside in facilities that provide a variety of services, including medical and personal care, to persons who are unable to live independently.”

Following the CDC’s recommendation, Gov. Ron DeSantis said earlier this month that the state’s top priorities would be residents of long-term care facilities, high-risk frontline health care workers and people who are 65 and older and living with significant comorbidities.

He’s estimated that Florida will receive between 1 million and 2 million of the country’s 40 million doses this month. The state has 497,000 licensed health care professionals and at least 368,000 residents of nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

With two doses needed per person, the first batch of vaccines the state receives “will not be enough” to cover all the people identified as those who should get the drugs first, Mary Mayhew, chief executive officer of the Florida Hospital Association and former secretary of the state Agency for Health Care Administration, said earlier this month.

Teng, the USF immunologist, said hospitals will likely have to prioritize which health care workers get the drugs first, focusing on those who come into contact with COVID-19 patients.

When can the average Floridian expect to have access to the vaccines?

The short answer is, no one knows for sure.

Teng estimates May if all goes well, though Floridians in rural areas, like the Panhandle or communities in the middle of the state, may have to wait longer.

Wolfson’s bet is “late spring or early summer.” It depends on a lot of factors, namely how quickly drug manufacturers are able to make and ship vials. His hope is that Florida will have at least half the population vaccinated by the fall.

“My crystal ball is probably as good as everyone else’s,” Teng said, adding that the need for ultra-cold storage is creating challenges for distribution of the drugs.

Will Floridians be forced to get vaccinated?

DeSantis has repeatedly said that the state will not require residents to take a coronavirus vaccine, and Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, has urged against that sort of mandate.

It would be “foolhardy” for the governor to require vaccination, Wolfson said. “What that’s going to do is create more pushback, and we don’t need that.”

In fact, because the vaccines will be under emergency use authorizations, they can’t be mandated by governmental entities, Teng said. That could only happen sometime next year, after the drugs have gone through a “safety monitoring period” and been licensed.

Private employers could require the vaccine now, Wolfson said, but he doesn’t expect many to. He does, however, expect that schools could eventually require COVID-19 vaccination for enrollment, as they already do for other diseases.

Will there be a cost? What if I don’t have insurance?

The federal government has purchased 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccines, making them free to consumers, Teng said. He and Wolfson expect that investment to continue.

“I’d like to think the federal government is going to see it as a public health necessity to make sure vaccines are available, and that insurance companies will cover what the government doesn’t,” Wolfson said.

Why do I need two doses? What if I don’t get the second dose? Who will keep track?

The coronavirus vaccines produced by Pfizer and Moderna each require two doses per person. That’s fairly normal for vaccines, including those for polio, hepatitis A and hepatitis B.

The first dose will teach your immune system to recognize what is called the “spike protein,” which is responsible for the virus getting into the cell, Teng said. The second dose will amplify that recognition so that it happens faster.

Doses of the vaccine made by drug manufacturer Pfizer must happen three weeks apart, while doses of the drug made by Moderna must happen four weeks apart.

It’s not advisable to get only one dose, as it provides only a low level of immunity, Teng said. “For me, it’s almost not worth getting the first dose if you don’t get the second. Especially when the vaccine is limited, you’d have just wasted a dose.”

The federal government is establishing a database to keep track of who is vaccinated, when and with which drug, Wolfson said. And there’s still lots of logistics to sort out.

Each of the hundreds of millions of vials manufactured will be labeled with a barcode and placed into a container for shipment, which will also get a barcode and be tracked to wherever it goes. That information will be uploaded alongside names and information in the database, so people can be contacted for their second dose.

“Compliance around something like this is going to be a huge challenge,” Wolfson said. “Getting people to come back three, six or eight weeks later for anything in health care is always a huge challenge.”

A view of the Pfizer Manufacturing plant in Puurs, Belgium, on Dec. 4. British officials planned to administer the first batches of the company's coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday, Dec. 8, a major step toward eventually ending the pandemic. [ OLIVIER MATTHYS | AP ]

What are the potential side effects? Could it cause me to get a mild case of COVID-19?

The COVID-19 vaccines do not contain any of the actual virus, so there’s no chance that taking one could infect you, Teng said. But it could cause some mild symptoms that are typical of other vaccines.

Symptoms are more likely with a second dose than a first, and they might include fever, chills, headache, fatigue and soreness at the injection site. “Anything more that comes up later would be a pretty rare event,” Teng said.

How old do you have to be to get a COVID-19 vaccine? Will there eventually be an option for younger children?

Currently, you must be 18 or older to take a coronavirus vaccine. Pfizer is starting trials involving children as young as 12, but those won’t be done until the spring, Teng said.

Should I quarantine after I am vaccinated? Will I be contagious?

Because there is no virus in the vaccine, those who receive it will not be infected or become contagious, Teng said. Still, it’s important to maintain public health measures, like wearing masks and social distancing, until more of the community is vaccinated.

When I get the vaccine, should I still wear a mask and social distance, or can I resume to normal life?

The vaccines set to be approved have about 95 percent success rates, so it’s possible the drug could be ineffective for some people. For that reason, Teng recommends that everyone continue taking precautions to decrease transmission of the coronavirus, even after receiving a vaccine.

“If you’ve been good enough to wear your mask and do physical distancing all this time, just continue to do it until we really get this under control,” he said. “There is so much virus out there. ... It doesn’t make sense to take the chance.”

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