CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — A number of companies are racing to get a vaccine approved. Companies like Moderna and Pfizer are ready to mass produce their vaccines and get them into the hands of healthcare workers.
"I say that by January we will have 40 million doses to distribute across the country," said Dr. Carlos Del Rio of Emory University.
Nueces County health officials have worked out who will get the vaccine first, but after that they have to set up a delivery system to get everyone else vaccinated, and then they have to make sure people know to get a follow-up shot later on, and that shot has to be the same brand as the first one.
"What we're doing to try to help individuals is if you receive your first dose from Pfizer, you have to receive your second dose from Pfizer. You can't switch between vaccines, and so if you have your first dose for Moderna you have to receive your second dose from Moderna," Nueces County Public Health Director Annette Rodriguez said. "But for Pfizer it's the first dose and then 21 days later, and for Moderna it's 28 days later."
To try and help people remember where they should go for their second vaccine shot, officials are thinking about having each brand's vaccination clinic at the same location where the first shot was given. Officials are also going to ensure that people register with them so no one will accidentally get the wrong follow-up dose.
"You're going to self-register just as you would if you were going to go and get tested for a nasal swab, so you self-register online, you put your information on there when you submit, that you want to register to get your COVID-19 vaccine," Rodriguez said. "You're actually consenting to the vaccine, which is part of what we need for our records. So you submit it."
Another big question that people have about the vaccines is exactly what do they contain? Officials say none of the COVID-19 vaccines currently under development use the live virus that causes COVID-19.
"To make these particular vaccines they are taking that genome sequence and they're actually inoculating that into your arm, and then your body is naturally making antibodies based off the genome sequence, so you don't have the virus in you," Rodriguez said.
The bad news is that it's going to take a while before mass vaccinations take place. Nueces County Judge Barbara Canales has said that she does not expect that to start happening until next summer.
For the latest updates on coronavirus in the Coastal Bend, click here.
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