Minnesota Selected As One Of Four States To Help Plan COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution

Minnesota health officials are in the planning stages to make some hard decisions ahead planning on who would get the shots first with this COVID-19 vaccine pilot program with demand being far greater than the initial supply.

Minnesota has had to ration medical supplies in the past back in 2009 with H1N1 swine flu vaccine, but health officials say the level of distributing this vaccine during this pandemic will be unprecedented.

Kris Ehresmann, state infectious disease director said to the Star Tribune "It will be a challenge, We need to vaccinate the entire global population." Four of the states including Minnesota were recently invited into the pilot program by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to begin planning for the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines nationwide.

According to the Star Tribune " Five vaccine candidates have reached Phase 3 clinical trials, which are the final stages in research before the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and regulatory agencies in other nations decide whether they are safe and effective enough for mass use. Moderna Inc. is already manufacturing doses of its vaccine for U.S. distribution even though its Phase 3 trial in 30,000 people has only begun."

Other vaccines are in development at Mayo Clinic in Rochester and The University of Minnesota in Minneapolis that could be set for clinical trials next year. When an actual vaccine is approved health care workers would be the first on the list to receive it since they are needed and are at high risk working with COVID-19 patients.

Their is still much work to be done with the possibility of a variety of vaccines being developed as some may work better than others in certain demographics. Until then all we can do is follow the guidelines that have been established and hope that the virus starts to slow down.