ATLANTA — Georgia’s long-term care industry learned more information about possible COVD-19 vaccine distribution from state health officials on Friday.
According to the Georgia Department of Public Health (DPH), the state has not received any vaccine yet.
While an FDA panel of experts gave the Pfizer vaccine the green light, the agency has not officially approved it.
Friday afternoon, DPH conducted a virtual webinar with more than 500 participants in Georgia long-term care industry, according to one nursing home administrator who listened to the meeting.
State health officials discussed the vaccine made by Pfizer and Moderna, the two pharmaceutical companies awaiting FDA approval.
The state said most long-term care facilities are working with either CVS or Walgreens for vaccine allocation.
On the call, it also appeared nursing home facilities, with equipment to keep the vaccine at the required temperatures, may get direct access and administer it themselves.
Participants were told the state will be using a web application called, Tiberius, to help it determine who gets the vaccine using data points, like demographics and public health information.
According to the nursing home administrator, DPH also recognized that there is vaccine hesitancy they have to address. The state plans to develop a multi-media campaign using TV, radio, and web applications to get the word out that the vaccine is safe and about 95 percent effective.
At the time Friday, an advisory group with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conducted a webinar about the proposed COVID-19 vaccines.
For several hours, a group of public health experts and doctors had a chance to directly ask a Pfizer doctor different questions about its proposed vaccine.
On the call, Pfizer shared that the vast majority of the vaccine trial participates were white.
White: 35,696
Black: 4,198
All others: 3,554
While the effectiveness of the vaccine, at about 95 percent, is still essentially the same for all races, the low Black participation likely demonstrates challenges with vaccine trust and hesitancy in Black communities.
Other highlights from the CDC advisory webinar:
- Less than one percent of patients who received the vaccine experienced side effects, which were mostly temporary minor to mild flu-like symptoms.
- 23 women, part who received the vaccine, became pregnant during the trial So far, none of the women have experienced adverse effects.
- Two women who received the vaccine this week in the United Kingdom were briefly hospitalized after an allergenic reaction. Their reactions happened within just minutes of getting the shot - not days later.
- Pfizer said it plans to implement a way for providers to easily report any adverse reactions to help track or detect potential issues.
- The advisory group plans to meet over the weekend. It’s unknown what its recommendation could be or whether it would impact the FDA’s decision.