CLEVELAND — Hospitals around the country are about to get a new wave of vaccines.
This time they are coming from Moderna for those 18 and older.
Like the Pfizer vaccine, it is given in two doses about a month apart.
But unlike the Pfizer drug, the Moderna vaccine does not need to be kept at super-cold temperatures.
“We’ll have Moderna in our hands probably Tuesday,” said Dr. Robert Salata of University Hospitals. “We have plans ready to go in terms of starting vaccination of our health care workers.”
Doctor Salata leads the Covid task force at UH and says about 1100 doses should be coming there. He calls it a “light at the end of the tunnel.”
The head of “Operation Warp Speed” points out there are broader benefits too.
“Moderna’s vaccine can be shipped and stored at standard freezer temperatures and is packed in containers of 100 doses each,” General Gustave Perna said. “This allows jurisdictions the flexibility to reach hard to reach and smaller rural areas.”
Yet there are also new concerns that the overall vaccination effort may be slowing down.
Across the country, at least 27 states claim the administration has cut their promised Pfizer vaccine allotments for the coming week by up to 40%.
They include Ohio.
In a rare Saturday news conference, Governor Mike DeWine teamed up with the U.S. Surgeon General to boost public confidence and transparency.
“It is our desire, our goal from the federal level to get as much vaccine out as quickly as we can,” said Dr. Jerome Adams, Surgeon General. “I want people to understand, this is the biggest logistical undertaking from a public health perspective, likely in modern history, and so there are going to be challenges.”
“It does not appear that the number we are being told now is not going to slow us up in regard to the nursing homes,” said Governor DeWine. “We are on track there.”
He added the government has cleared the National Guard to administer vaccines to the general public.
“The National Guard has been absolutely phenomenal and gives us one more tool to use when we try to get vaccines out just as quickly as we can,” he said.
Dr. Salata believes everyone who wants the vaccine should be able to get it by late summer, and stresses they should.
“As many as 75 to even 80% of the entire U.S. population needs to be vaccinated before we get to the point of what is called ‘herd immunity,’” he said.
Until that time, health experts stress the public should be following all the rules when it comes masks, social distancing and washing hands.
On Saturday a spokesperson from Cleveland Clinic confirmed to 3News that they are also expecting a shipment from Moderna this week.
Both the Clinic and UH report seeing their highest number of Covid hospitalizations since the pandemic began.
You can see Gov. DeWine's news conference with U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Jerome Adams in the player below:
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