LOUISVILLE, Ky. — When a COVID-19 vaccine hits the market, what is Kentucky’s plan? The Commonwealth has already sent its 49-page draft vaccination plan to the federal government for input.

While details are still being ironed out, one thing is certain, this isn’t an easy task. Dr. SarahBeth Hartlage knows this well as the medical officer for Louisville Metro Government’s response to COVID-19.

“As many as possible; as quickly as possible,” Dr. Hartlage said is Louisville Metro Public Health and Wellness' (LMPHW) vaccination goal when one is released. However, to give a specific goal isn’t possible because there is no telling, yet, what vaccine will be available, when, or how many doses will be given to Kentucky.

“We hope to get to be able to capture that “herd immunity” by getting upwards of 70-80% of our population in the long term,” Dr. Hartlage said, regarding Jefferson County. 

Dr. Hartlage said Louisville Metro is as ready as it can be if a vaccine were ready tomorrow, but some details are still being ironed out because no one knows which vaccine will be ready first. There are various vaccines in clinical trials, which have different specifications on how to store and distribute safely if approved. The most notable vaccine being tested right now is from Pfizer due to its Monday, November 9 announcement that gave a promising outlook but has more complicated refrigeration and storage requirements.

“So I think it’s probably a good time to be selling -90° freezers in the world. That supply chain is increasingly tight, especially after this announcement for Pfizer. There’s lots of people trying to make those purchases. It’s not to the point that it’s a scarce or unavailable resource, at this point, but it is something people are considering,” Dr. Hartlage told Spectrum News 1.

Dr. Hartlage said it is a challenge for health departments to logistically preparing for a vaccine because no one knows which vaccine will be approved first. For example, a health department could have all the refrigeration requirements in place for Pfizer’s vaccine, but then if another vaccine comes out, there would be different requirements for its storage and distribution.

“So the other products, like I said, seem to be only one to require kind of a standard refrigeration temperature and other special temperature, not this special temperature,” Dr. Hartlage said. She said the good news is for Louisville is that its health department administers a lot of vaccines normally, like travel vaccines, and it has experience with large scale vaccination efforts from H1N1.

“We’ve been coordinating with the School of Public Health here at UofL to help with some of the logistical planning on that side, as well. So we are prepared as much as we can be, and we do have quite a view capacity for the standard refrigeration and some capacity for the special freezers, as well,” Dr. Hatlage explained.

Dr. Hartlage said Louisville is still working on where people can get the vaccine, but, regardless, she said their health department will have vaccine events for the public that may look similar to drive-thru COVID-19 testing sites now.

“We’ve gotten pretty good at drive-through healthcare over the past few months, learning by necessity, but we’ve learned how to do those things, and having that air outside circulating helps improve the safety factor for everyone,” she said.

Kentucky’s draft COVID-19 vaccination plan says in many rural Kentucky counties, the community pharmacist is the healthcare provider seen most frequently, and that Kentucky’s Public Health Department (KPHD) plans to utilize “mobile vaccination teams” to provide mass vaccination clinics to certain populations, like meat processing plants.

Dr. Hartlage thinks the biggest concern for urban areas regarding the vaccines is equity.

“We don’t want to give preference to someone based on their race, or gender, what zip code they live in. It can be hard to reach certain populations based on cultural issues or just economic issues, and so we do specific outreach into those communities to try and keep them in the loop and keep them involved,” Dr. Hartlage said.

She said for rural centers, the biggest challenge may be the cold storage and supply chain.

“Because the cold storage is limited in an urban setting and may be completely unavailable in a rural setting so you know are we looking at storing things long-term in an urban area and then transporting it once a week to an urban area I mean to a rural area? I’m not sure what that train looks like, but the supply chain in general, I think it’s going to be especially challenging for our cohorts in the rural areas.”

Another challenge to an available COVID-19 vaccine is that it won’t be readily available.

Kentucky’s draft COVID-19 vaccination plan says Kentucky will receive a vaccine allocation based on its proportion of the U.S. population. So the vaccine supply is expected to be limited, initially, with a better outlook on availability in 2021.

Due to a very real possibility of a limited supply, in Kentucky the following populations will be first in line to get the COVID-19 vaccine:

• Healthcare personnel and first responders likely to be exposed to or treating people with COVID-19
• Essential workers and workers in high public contact jobs, like at grocery stores  
• People at high risk for severe illness from COVID-19 like those with underlying medical conditions and people 65 years or older

Finally, once the vaccine is ready, the public has to get it. Since vaccines can normally take more than 10 years to develop, there is public skepticism. 

“And I don’t blame them for their skepticism,” Dr. Hartlage said. “This is a brand new vaccine. It’s being done very quickly, and this is a new technology even in the vaccine world so there are concerns. We are monitoring safety. I think the biggest thing is that as soon as we are able to we will be working hard on educating the public,” Dr. Hartlage explained. She also said she will be taking the vaccine to lead by example to show that a vaccine is safe once it is approved to be on the market. 

That is something Governor Andy Beshear also echoed on Tuesday, November 10, during his daily COVID-19 briefing.

“If we asked every Kentuckian right now, are they willing to take it, we wouldn’t have as high of a number as we want to hit, but they also haven’t seen the information on it. Safety, and us communicating that, is going to be really important, and, like I said, I’m ready to take it during one of these to show people that I believe it’s safe,” Beshear said.