It is truly exciting that world scientists, prepared by decades of basic research were able to produce vaccines in record time, and for the first time against a coronavirus. This news is prologue to an advance against the pandemic, its continued spread and its lethality.
However, there are some cautions that we need to be cognizant of as we move from Press Release to vaccine distribution and inoculation.
WHICH VACCINE WILL YOU GET?
You most likely will have no choice. The vaccine provided to the distribution point that you choose to use will be preselected. This is not unusual; it is instead quite normal. When you get your Flu Vaccine you don’t know which manufacturer provided the vaccine; the exception being that the elderly receive a larger dose. The same is true with the vaccines your child received at birth and during childhood. Multiple vaccine manufacturers produced those vaccines and you were never given a choice. The only exception to this is whether you have an egg allergy as most vaccines using traditional methods grow the virus in chicken eggs. If you do have such an allergy, then your vaccine would be from a manufacturer that produces the vaccine in a fabrication process that does not use eggs.
Likewise, when you get your meds delivered and you receive a generic substitution, you have no choice about which manufacturer produced that drug. That is why you might see one prescription filled with an oblong white tablet and the next with a round pink tablet. Both are the same generic drugs, just produced by different manufacturers.
DO I HAVE TO GET THE SAME VACCINE IN BOTH DOSES?
Yes. If you get the Moderna vaccine first, then you will need to get the Moderna vaccine three weeks later. You cannot get the Moderna vaccine first and then the Pfizer vaccine later, even though both use the same technology.
This is the first problem with distribution. You will need to get the self-same vaccine for both doses. This creates a distribution issue. Let’s say that you go to your local CVS to get your vaccine. They give you the AZ vaccine and tell you that you need to come back in 3 weeks to get the booster. Meanwhile, they are getting lines out the door and around the block with people clamoring to get vaccinated. If the CVS does not reserve vaccine for you in advance of your reappearance because they are under extraordinary pressure to vaccinate as many people as possible, or if they trust the distribution system to be able to deliver sufficient vaccine in advance of your reappearance, there may be insufficient vaccine to give you your booster shot.
It will also be critical that a robust and accessible centralized computer data base be developed so that each and every person who receives a first dose can be tracked. They will need to be reminded that they are due for their booster shot. Mr. John Smith will need to be notified; his record will need to designate which vaccine he has received and which he needs to get; Mr. Smith will need to checked for identification based on his ID or address, or both; If Mr. Smith is now in a different state than where he received the first dose and needs the booster, the records must be available nationally.
WHO WILL GET THE VACCINES AND WHEN?
There will be limited amounts of vaccines available initially. The issues of who gets to the head of the line will have multiple inputs including who is most exposed to potential infections, who is most vulnerable to infection, who is most responsible for spreading infections, etc.
I expect that in our capitalist society, some people will use their influence and potentially their pocketbooks to jump the line. There will be exposés on groups that bypassed the CDC guidelines or used their political leverage to divert vaccines intended for one group to their own use.
COUNTERFEIT VACCINES
These vaccines are clear liquids inside glass vials. I expect that there will be unscrupulous “entrepreneurs” who will operate store front pharmacies, online websites and mobile services promising to provide you with vaccine even though you aren’t on the “approved and earliest” list. Of course, they will charge you for the privilege, but we will find many of these entities are providing only distilled water.
The accelerated and wide system of distribution is wide open to theft, diversion, loss and substitution. This distribution system will need to be extremely regulated, monitored and policed.
REGISTRATION AND REGULATION
With the ability to begin to create viral resistance in the population, we will be able to truly begin to reopen the economy. Once you are past the 28 days post first vaccination and 7 days past the booster shot, you can be more confident that you are not only protected against disease but protected against transmitting disease to others. (this is not an absolute, but it is a very, very good positive.)
So, how do we use that information? Wouldn’t you feel better going into a movie theatre if you knew that you were vaccinated and that all of the other people in the theatre were also vaccinated? Maybe you would then be comfortable in seeing a movie. But how do we do that? The simplest way is to use an optical code on your cell phone that is issued by the CDC only AFTER you have successfully concluded your vaccination protocol and past the time that is required to pass. It might also be restricted to people who completed the vaccination protocol AND were negative for a virus test, OR positive for an antibody test.
Once that optical code is activated for you, then you will be “safe” to enter society. Theatres, restaurants, bars, gyms, schools, etc., would then be able to scan your phone before you are admitted.
Of course, there will be issues with this. Not everyone (even now) has a cell phone; those people may need to be issued a paper ID with the glyph, and this might need to be done at the point of immunization such as the pharmacy they used, but this would need to be provided ONLY after successful completion of immunization protocols. Who will pay the pharmacies to do this?
Unscrupulous hackers will attempt to create fake IDs to allow you into a bar even though you don’t have the appropriate authorizations. People will “borrow” other people’s phones to get them through the door before they complete their vaccination protocol or without vaccination. Fast data bases with confirmational aspects, perhaps facial recognition might be necessary.
Also, there will need to be regulatory legal repercussions to those individuals who attempt to circumvent this process since those individuals will be risking the lives of others.
Finally, there will be significant legal challenges to these types of measures. Some people will argue that they should maintain their personal freedoms to opt out of vaccination, and that the restrictions forcing them to become vaccinated before they can have free access to businesses is unconstitutional.