Hospitals in the U.S. are ready to receive Covid-19 vaccines once the U.S. authorities grant emergency use authorization.
Atrium Health CEO Eugene Woods confirmed that they are “locked and loaded” to fight the coronavirus pandemic through vaccinations. “We have refrigeration units that can store up on Day One 300,000 vials,” Woods said on “Squawk on the Street.” “We also are training staff as we speak.”
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has yet to clear two coronavirus vaccines for use. Meanwhile, Covid vaccine chief Moncef Slaoui said that the entire population of the U.S. could be vaccinated by June next year and that there are sufficient doses to immunize the rest of the world by early to mid-2022.
“We are ready. We are anxious for the vaccine,” said OhioHealth CEO Dr. Stephen Markovichin the same segment. OhioHealth is running two of the state’s 10 prepositioning areas for the coronavirus vaccine. The locations were selected by the health department based on factors like geography and access to storage freezers.
“We’re working on the protocols, working through the triaging of people, and it’s going to be an exciting time. It’s really, hopefully, going to be the beginning of the end” of the pandemic, Markovich said. “It won’t be easy. It’s not going to be fast. It’s going to be complicated, but I really think it’s going to be an exciting time.”
“As soon as the protocols get released by the CDC — I know they’re meeting today — we’ll be ready to go,” said Woods regarding hospitals in the U.S. being prepared to distribute vaccines. “We anticipate that the vaccine distribution is just a few weeks away. Nothing is going to mean more to me personally than seeing my front-line workers, who are literally exhausted at this point, receive their first doses of vaccine,” he explained. “It will be the highlight, not just of the year, but of the decade.”
Meanwhile, Markovich, a physician, expressed his concern about the epidemic in Ohio, where over 5,000 Covid-19 patients were sent to the hospital on Monday. “That is a 200% growth in hospitalized cases since the first of November,” he noted. “So, it’s a big challenge for all hospital systems across the state.”
“People are tired. I wouldn’t say they are anxious. I think they feel supported, but they are mentally and physically pretty darn exhausted,” he said. “Once the vaccine gets out, we need really to push on the population to get as many people vaccinated as possible.”
“Hopefully by the middle of the year, I hope most Americans will have been immunized, which means the level of hesitancy that exists currently will have been decreased because people will have learned more information … about the vaccine,” Slaoui told The Washington Post in a livestream interview.
He added that if everyone gets immunized, the U.S. “should have this pandemic under control in the second half of 2021.”
The government advisor admitted that it is “a big number” of doses to produce, but it is “a small number compared to the U.S. population and the need we have.” He further explained that people must still follow health protocols, like wearing face masks and social distancing.
