CDC tells health leaders to prepare for ’large-scale’ distribution of COVID-19 vaccine by late October

ORLANDO, Fla. — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention notified health leaders in every state to prepare to distribute a COVID-19 vaccine possibly by late October.

The agency also offered plans on how to distribute a vaccine and who should get it first.

The CDC told governors last week to prepare for the “large-scale” distribution of a coronavirus vaccine by the end of October near Halloween.

Read: Coronavirus: Fauci expects US will have ‘safe and effective vaccine’ by the end of the year

The CDC said it has a contract with a pharmaceutical company to potentially distribute hundreds of millions of vaccine doses to health departments and medical facilities across the country in the fall.

The problem is health departments that have been underfunded for decades said they lack the staff, money and tools to educate people about vaccines and then to distribute, administer and track hundreds of millions of doses. Nor do they know when, or if, they’ll get federal aid to do that. Then there’s also the safety factor.

“Now you’re talking about vaccinating the broad public who are otherwise healthy or not infected, including kids,” said Dr. Dena Grayson. “So that bar for safety is much, much higher. And that’s why, you know, it’s really needed to have the results from these larger clinical trials.”

Read: CDC urges states to eliminate red tape to speed potential COVID-19 vaccine distribution by Nov. 1

The government committed more than $10 billion to develop new coronavirus vaccines but it hasn’t allocated money specifically for distributing and administering them.

While local governments received billions in congressional emergency funding, that money is not earmarked for distributing a vaccine.

Cox Media Group