Frederica Freyberg:

The COVID-19 vaccine is soon to be en route to Wisconsin and within coming days will be injected into the arms of frontline health care workers and nursing home residents. UW Health is one of the hubs that will receive the Pfizer vaccine with its requirement that it be kept at temperatures below minus 90 degrees Fahrenheit. Dr. Matt Anderson is with UW Health and he’s in charge of the distribution. He joins us now from Madison. Thanks for being here.

Matt Anderson:

Thanks for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:

So when exactly are shipments of the Pfizer vaccine expected to arrive?

Matt Anderson:

We’re expecting them to come sometime in the early portions of next week, depending upon shipment dates and everything. We’re expecting early in the week.

Frederica Freyberg:

So what is it like for this day to be upon us that people in hospitals like yours will soon be able to give this vaccine for COVID-19?

Matt Anderson:

I think there’s a lot of excitement and hope that it brings. I think there’s also the realization that this isn’t going to be an on/off switch for the pandemic. But I think it’s another tool in our tool belt so to speak for how we can approach and make progress in reducing the community spread and reducing the infectivity rates and the suffering that’s being going on as a result of COVID. There’s a lot of excitement and hope about that while being tempered with the realization that we still have months and a lot of important days ahead of us.

Frederica Freyberg:

How many vaccines will your hub get and how will they be stored there?

Matt Anderson:

We’re expecting around 4,000 here with this first shipment, but that number is still a little bit up in the air. They’ll be stored in our ultra-cold freezers which are going to be here and some of those doses distributed out to other parts of the south central region.

Frederica Freyberg:

So you will get 4,000, which just doesn’t seem like that many, but they will then go to your frontline workers and likewise at other kind of distribution sites?

Matt Anderson:

Correct. The 4,000, we’re not clear at this point how many of those will be for UW Health employees versus other sites. The distribution is really determined by the DHS and the state Disaster Medical Advisory Committee has an allocation framework. So as the supply for the different vaccines becomes available, that’s how it will be determined who’s getting what in what portions.

Frederica Freyberg:

Which workers then, say at your hospital, get priority?

Matt Anderson:

The priority is really determined by workplace risk exposure. So for those who have the greatest duration, frequency or intensity of exposure. Some examples of those would include our anesthesia teams that are doing airway management, our emergency departments, ICUs, in-patient units taking care of COVID patients, respiratory therapists. Those folks are really in that highest-risk group and that’s how we’re approaching it.

Frederica Freyberg:

So complicated all of this. How are they transported from your hub? And what’s their shelf life?

Matt Anderson:

So the shelf life if you have the vaccine in the ultra-cold storage and you take it out, it can take several hours to thaw. If you maintain refrigeration, then you have five days with which to administer the vaccine. The vaccines are in multidose vials so once you go ahead and open that vial and dilute it, as you have to, to prepare, you have six hours to give it at that point.

Frederica Freyberg:

How long until immunity takes effect after a vaccine? I know it’s got two doses, so how long until you are kind of vaccinated from COVID-19?

Matt Anderson:

So one thing just to reiterate is that we know that it’s not necessarily 100%, you know, immunity at this point. We know that the number is actually really encouraging, but not there. From a standpoint of which doses and how much immunity, it really is a week plus beyond that second dose when you’re really getting the maximum immunity benefit. That’s why it’s important that everybody gets that second dose after they receive the first, because it’s only partial at that point and there’s still stuff — information that we don’t know about the duration. But that second dose is really important.

Frederica Freyberg:

And then all of this we need to suggest that it will be some time until the general public can get this vaccine, correct?

Matt Anderson:

Absolutely. We’re going to be expecting that to be more in the summer time frame and hopefully it would be sooner if we had a greater number of vaccines, greater supply chain capabilities. We’ll have to watch and see. But yes, we are expecting it to be a number of months before it’s broadly available to the general public.

Frederica Freyberg:

So between now and then, what is your guidance?

Matt Anderson:

For the public, the same things that we’ve been talking about continue to be really important. It’s important we avoid large gatherings. Keep our social, physical distance from each other as we’ve been saying. That people wear masks, that they have hand hygiene practices because we know while it’s exciting that we don’t want to declare victory too early and there are a lot of things that we can be doing still to make sure we reduce any suffering or unnecessary complications from COVID-19.

Frederica Freyberg:

All right. Dr. Matt Anderson, thanks very much and thank you for your work.

Matt Anderson:

Thank you. I appreciate it.