“I hope the launch of the boosters can be until the end of September or the end of October,” said Dr. Lisa Santora, Marin County NCO.
The FDA is holding a meeting of the advisory committee on Sept. 17 to discuss the safety and efficacy data of the Pfizer booster vaccine.
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Santora explains if Pfizer reinforcement receives FDA approval, the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices or ACIP will determine which groups should be prioritized first. The California Department of Public Health will then issue formal guidelines to counties before beginning any release.
“What I anticipate is for the CDC to issue a withholding statement that will provide some direction to both states and local health jurisdictions in the next steps,” Santora said.
ABC7 confirmed that nine counties in the Bay Area are preparing to launch booster injections through health partners, such as local pharmacies or doctors ’clinics.
“I can imagine that UCSF and Kaiser will create great vaccination sites, the city can do some of them too,” said Dr. George Rutherford of UCSF.
SEE: The SF vaccine mandate is already in place for indoor bars, restaurants, gyms, etc.
Preparations are underway for the San Mateo County Event Center to move to a mass vaccination site to administer at least 2,000 to 3,000 COVID booster shots a day.
“Once all of this approval occurs, we can turn the event center into a vaccination site in a few days,” said Dr. Anand Chabra of San Mateo County Health.
In Solano County, the health department is collaborating with health care providers to directly distribute booster injections to long-term care facilities and housing complexes for seniors during the early stages. .
“We want to make sure our vulnerable populations have access immediately,” said Dr. Bela Matyas, Solano County Health Director.
The Solano County Fairgrounds is preparing to become a mass vaccination site in Vallejo. Once open, the site is expected to operate four days a week and on weekends.
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“We are planning to be able to administer 100,000 to 120,000 vaccines at this site for several months,” Matyas said.
In Marin County, the health department is working to reopen a large expanded vaccination clinic that will administer 1,500 booster shots a day to serve the county’s priority populations.
“Some have compared this to giving a life jacket to someone who already has a life jacket,” Santora said. “So that’s one of our concerns.”
According to CNN’s global vaccine tracker, there are 23 countries worldwide where less than 1% of the population has been completely vaccinated.
Dr. Bob Wachter of the UCSF reflected on the ethical dilemma of giving impetus when some countries do not have enough supply for their populations.
“I think it’s unrealistic to ask a society to say we won’t give people a vaccine that they really need … because we want to save those doses to give them to other countries,” Wachter said. “It would be very humanitarian if we did, but it’s not realistic.”
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