Powell Valley Healthcare and Cody Regional Health are preparing for the initial allocations of the COVID-19 vaccine, but specifics are still a ways off. 

“We want to make sure the communities we serve understand this is a phased approach and we are waiting on direction from the Wyoming Department of Health,” Bill Crampton, Park County Public Health nurse manager, said in a news release last week.

Since March, federal agencies have been funding companies producing vaccine candidates, with the aim of providing widespread vaccinations against the pandemic.

On Nov. 20, Pfizer Inc. published data showing the vaccine it developed with German partner BioNTech SE was 95% effective in preventing COVID-19. A committee of outside expert advisers will meet on Dec. 10 to discuss the data and make recommendations to the FDA on whether it should grant emergency use authorization (EUA). The authorization is granted under extraordinary circumstances that allows treatments to receive FDA approval through a significantly faster process than the usual procedures.

Moderna Inc. also developed a vaccine that is about as equally effective as Pfizer’s. They submitted their EUA on Nov. 30, and a committee will review their data on Dec. 17.

The agency usually follows the advice of the expert committees. If the authorization is granted, the companies can begin shipping doses immediately. In all, tens of millions of doses could be shipped in the first part of next year.

The federal government has charged states with development plans for distributions to their populations. The Wyoming Department of Health published an Interim Draft COVID-19 Vaccination Plan in October, and updated it at the end of November. It remains a working document, and the DOH website warns it’s subject to change.

Steve Hultgren, pharmacy director for Powell Valley Healthcare, said the Pfizer vaccine must be stored at temperatures of minus 76 to minus 112 fahrenheit. The hospital has requested a freezer that can achieve that level of extreme cold, but with demand so high right now, the equipment is on backorder.

Hultgren said they expect PVHC’s freezer to be delivered by the end of December.

“That’s what we’re being told,” Hultgren said.

Hultgren added that it’s possible the vaccine will be available before PVHC has the equipment to store it properly. Cody Regional Health, however, has the equipment available, which is currently not being used.

Doug Wenke, Cody Regional pharmacy director, said the state has asked the organization to receive the first distributions when they ship.

Like Hultgren, Wenke stressed that the state’s distribution plans are changing constantly, so when the vaccines will ship and who will be given the initial allocations is not certain.

“Besides asking us to store the vaccine for them, not a lot else has transpired,” Wenke said.

Currently, Wyoming’s draft plan rolls out initial allocations of the vaccines in three phases. The first phase is divided into two groups, with healthcare workers receiving the first distributions. That population will be followed by those with an increased risk for developing complications from the disease, such as people over 65 and people with underlying health conditions.

The second phase, according to the Department of Health plan, will allocate vaccinations to “critical workers, people with underlying conditions, those in congregate settings, and people with limited access to vaccination services.”

As more vaccine doses are available later in the second phases, the vaccine will be provided to all people that are recommended to receive the vaccine.

The third phase comes as the supply of vaccines reaches sufficient levels that all people who are recommended to be vaccinated receive it and demand begins to fall. At that point, “vaccination providers and ordering will be based on provider capacity and need,” the state plan reads.

Laura Farnworth, Cody Regional employee health coordinator, said in the news release from public health that the organization is asking service line directors to make records of which employees are wanting the vaccine, those who are unsure about receiving it, and those who do not want to receive it and why.

“We want people to know this vaccine is not mandatory, and we will be giving our team the option to receive it or not,” Farnworth said.