How COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Could Look In Bucks Co.

BUCKS COUNTY, PA — Distribution of a vaccine for the virus that causes COVID-19 likely will look one of two ways in Bucks County. But, the county's health director said the general public shouldn't expect one until at least next year.

There are currently 14 vaccines worldwide in the second phase of trials, with nine in the third phase, according to the New York Times vaccine tracker.

Dr. David Damsker, director of the Bucks County Department of Health, said his department will work with Pennsylvania's Department of Public Safety to get a vaccine to the public, but that "it's a bit early" to know exactly how that will look.

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He said the earliest doses the county receives likely will be earmarked for healthcare workers, nursing home and other care-facility workers and residents and other high-risk groups. Those, Damsker said, probably will be distributed by the county.

Once the supply gets big enough to offer to the general public, Damsker said, the county may simply distribute doses to doctor's offices and other healthcare facilities or it may need to set up its own vaccination sites.

"We have done mass clinics many times in the past and know how to do them" Damsker said.

He noted, however, that if the health department is called upon to run mass clinics, its work doing coronavirus contact tracing and case investigations "will slow down or stop."

"We can't focus on both," Damsker said.

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A detailed decision won't have to be made very soon, according to the director. Based on the research that's currently happening, he said a vaccine shouldn't be available to the public until next year at the earliest.

"I am hoping by the end of the year we may see a few, but I’m thinking more likely early next year," Damsker said, noting that the first vaccines would be the ones for healthcare workers and others. "The Phase 3 trials have to take time such that people get infected with COVID to see if it worked better than the placebo."

Dr. Rachel Levine, Pennsylvania's health secretary, has pushed back against political calls for rushing a vaccine to the public before adequate testing has been done.

Speaking this month as president of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials, Levine condemned statements by federal health officials saying they would consider authorizing the use of a COVID-19 vaccine before the third phase of trials was finished.

"The safety and efficacy of vaccines is paramount to protecting the health of the American public and to building confidence in our state and territorial immunization programs ...," she said. "In these unprecedented times, the federal government must uphold a key principle of medical practice to 'do no harm.' "

Levine said the federal government must "acknowledge and support the Herculean effort involved in standing up a safe and effective nationwide program of this magnitude," saying that states like Pennsylvania "are doing all they can in the middle of the pandemic to plan and prepare for a COVID-19 vaccination campaign."