NORTH CAROLINA, USA — WFMY News 2's Maddie Gardner spoke virtually with the Secretary of the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Mandy Cohen about the COVID-19 vaccine, the pandemic and what's next.
Maddie: I'm interested to know how you would rate North Carolina’s initial rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine.
Dr. Cohen: I know folks are frustrated but we just don’t have enough vaccine for the folks who want one the demand for the vaccine is really high which is great but we don’t really have the supply from the federal government and it’s a work in progress and in fact the Biden administration has given us more in the last couple of weeks and will for the next couple of weeks going forward but the supply is still so limited and I know that that is really frustrating for folks. I would say as we got started here we were a little slow out of the gate. It did take us a little bit a time to sort of get our operations together but now we are cooking, meaning we are getting vaccine and we get it into arms right away. All of our vaccine providers are doing a great job ,we have absolutely no first doses sitting on shelves for multiple days, like I said we get it them we get into arms. We just don’t have enough. I know it’s very frustrating but as we wait for more supply, and hopefully that will come in the coming months, we’re just going to keep working on getting what we have out and then quickly but also equitably.
Maddie: Is there anything more that the state can be doing to get more doses of the vaccine from the federal government?
Cohen: No, there’s really nothing more that we can do the way that they’re allocating vaccine based on population, you know we are the size that we are. What I think will be helpful is that the FDA is going to be reviewing a third vaccine, as you know we have two vaccines right now that are on the market, they’re about to review at the end of this month a third vaccine and there may even be a fourth vaccine and I think those are the things that could really help us in terms of getting to everyone who wants a vaccine. Because the supply of the Pfizer and the Moderna vaccine are very limited at this point and, you know, we are just vaccinating folks who are age 65 and up as well as our healthcare workers and we continue to see high demand from that group. Our next group up would be our frontline essential workers, these are teachers, police officers, firefighters, people who cannot stay home to do their job. So they’re the next group but they’re a big, big group coming up so we know it’s going to take us a long time to even be able to get to that full group. So we appreciate that this is frustrating and we don’t have enough supply but we’re working hard to the federal government to demonstrate that we can get vaccine out quickly you just got to get it to us.
Maddie: Do you have a timeline for when you think every North Carolina and who wants a vaccine will be able to get one?
Cohen: I wish my crystal ball was clear, it’s a little bit hazy in there but I have been saying this summer. I think it’s going to be the summer before a vaccine is widely available to others and I know again if that’s frustrating as we sit here in February to think through to a June, July kind of timeframe before it’s more widely available but I think that that’s our likely time frame. I’m hopeful with more vaccine being approved that that could potentially change but again, we don’t really have insight into how much vaccine those manufacturers are making and remember we’re not the only country going through this, the whole world is going through it so we’re all seeing that short supply of the vaccine.
Maddie: It’s hard to imagine this with the demand that we're seeing but for the people who were still weary about getting this vaccine what’s your message to them?
Cohen: Well, there are still folks who want to make sure they’re getting enough information about the vaccine before they take it. I understand that. So a couple of things I would want them to know first you’re seeing that nearly 1,000,000 people in North Carolina had been vaccinated, you’re seeing minimum side effects, folks have a sore arm they may feel crummy for 24 to 48 hours and the other thing that they should know is where to get good information be sure to keep checking back at yourshotyourspot.nc.gov. You can also Google "Vaccine in North Carolina" and it will come up but yourshotyourspot.nc.gov that’s where you have good information. It talks about how the vaccines have gone through rigorous testing, how experts review that data on how COVID vaccines do not have COVID in it so it’s not like we’re injecting COVID into your body to build those antibodies, so lots of good information. I hope that they’re hearing from the folks in their own communities and that they’re seeing their own friends and colleagues get vaccines - healthcare workers and those over 65 - so we hope that they’re getting good information, seeing their colleagues and then making the vaccine accessible and available to them to make sure that folks are ready to get their shot when it’s their spot.
Maddie: In terms of accessibility, we know county health departments are getting does, healthcare systems are getting doses and now pharmacies will start getting vaccine as well. Do you foresee private practices getting doses of the vaccine in the future?
Cohen: I do in the future expect a vaccine to be widely available. Unfortunately now we can barely get vaccine to the providers that we have. We are about to have our Walgreens across North Carolina to have vaccine but again, I want to say that the supply is very limited in those stores they may have 100 doses over a whole week to give out at Walgreens store. So we are trying to add providers, we’ve already brought on our federally qualified health centers and we have already brought on a number of our independent private practices that also reach underserved communities, so we’re bringing on new providers all the time but the reality is we just don’t have a lot of supply to go around.
Maddie: Once the pandemic is deemed over once we’re back to as normal as we’re going to get what are you going to do?
Cohen: I'm looking forward to hugging my extended family, my mom, my dad my sister, my brother their kids, my brother had a baby during this pandemic that I have not yet met so I want to snuggle with her. So what other folks want to do, which is going back to see our family and friends we haven’t seen in a while so that’s top for me. But we also have a lot of work to do here in North Carolina. I want to make sure I’m working with the governor to get Medicaid expanded that is something that’s really necessary to both respond and recover from this pandemic we need folks to have access to health insurance as we go. We have some hard work to do to make sure that everyone has the opportunity in North Carolina. So a lot of personal stuff but is also a lot of important work that we’re going to need to do to continue to respond but also recover from this pandemic. We know there are mental health impacts from this that are going to have a long tail so we have a lot of work ahead of us but I have a phenomenal team here the department as well as providers across the state so we’re in good shape as a state here but I’m excited to hug a few people take a nap and then get back to work.