When will you be able to get the COVID-19 vaccine in Florida? It could be a few weeks
Now that Florida has received its first batch of the COVID-19 vaccine, the state plans to give it first to those who are frequently exposed or are at high risk of falling seriously ill with the disease.
That includes healthcare workers and long-term care residents. Eventually, the state will focus on people older than 65 and those who have certain medical conditions. Essential workers are also on the priority list.
But what if you’re younger than 65, are currently unemployed, don’t work in healthcare or another “essential” service? What if you’re a college student?
For Florida’s general population, COVID-19 vaccines might become available in February, said Gov. Ron DeSantis during a news conference Monday at Tampa General Hospital.
“As we get into, potentially, February you could be in a situation where there’s going to be vaccines for people regardless of circumstances or health risks or age,” DeSantis said. “Probably not before that and maybe not quite at that point, but that is very possible so we’re just going to keep communicating, let folks know kind of what we’re doing.”
He said the vaccine availability timeline could vary, depending on how many doses are available.
One of the potential speed bumps Florida might face: A problem with vaccine shipments.
DeSantis said Florida could receive fewer than the 452,000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine than the state was expecting because of a Pfizer “production issue.” He said that two shipments of the vaccine scheduled to be sent to Florida in the coming weeks are “on hold right now.”
On Thursday, Pfizer contradicted the governor and said none of the vaccines were on hold or delayed. McClatchy’s Washington Bureau later reported Thursday that the federal government had caused the confusion.
Tiberius, the federal clearinghouse used by the states to monitor vaccine shipments, initially quoted shipment numbers to states using outdated, overestimated figures, an anonymous federal official told McClatchy.
Another challenge for vaccine distribution is high demand.
While 100 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine have been purchased by the United States, the company has already said it can’t deliver additional doses of the vaccine until summer because other countries have bought most of the company’s supply, according to U.S. News and World Report.
The Trump administration could have purchased more of Pfizer’s vaccines over the summer, but chose not to as it was still unclear how effective the shots would be.
It won’t be the only vaccine on the market for long, however.
Moderna and other COVID-19 vaccines might be on the market soon
The Food and Drug Administration on Friday evening authorized the emergency use of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, clearing the way for the drug to be distributed across the country. Florida could receive a shipment of the vaccine by early next week.
Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine, which would require a single dose, could also be reviewed by the FDA in January for emergency use authorization and AstraZeneca’s vaccine, Politico reports, could potentially file for emergency use later in February.
Florida officials are also already looking into where they would create mass vaccination sites, similar to COVID-19 testing sites, so they can distribute the vaccine. One of the sites being considered for the spring is the University of Central Florida.
What about in South Florida?
The locations haven’t been finalized yet, said Samantha Bequer, a spokeswoman for the Florida Division of Emergency Management.
She said the state is looking at sites that will be easily accessible to people such as county health departments, pharmacies and community-based COVID-19 testing sites.
This story was originally published December 15, 2020 at 2:20 PM.
