Washington Secretary of Health: Vaccine must be proven safe, effective before use
Washington’s Secretary of Health emphasized Wednesday that the state expects COVID-19 vaccines to fully pass the established three-phase research trials before they are distributed.
His comments followed news that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had told public health officials to be prepared to distribute vaccines by Nov. 1 — two days before the national election.
“We certainly expect those trials to be completed before a vaccine is distributed, unless an independent board of scientists says otherwise,” health secretary John Wiesman said during a weekly briefing by health officials about the state’s coronavirus response.
“We’re planning towards that date so that no matter when a vaccine actually ends up being available that we will be ready for that,” he said. “... We want to distribute them only when it’s safe to do that.”
Clinical development of a vaccine is a three-phase process, according to the CDC website. During Phase I, small groups of people receive the trial vaccine. In Phase II, the clinical study is expanded and vaccine is given to people who have characteristics (such as age and physical health) similar to those for whom the new vaccine is intended. In Phase III, the vaccine is given to thousands of people and tested for efficacy and safety.
Wiesman talked Wednesday about public trust in institutions being low, and the risk of politics influencing the timing a vaccine’s release.
“Trust at this point is low for some people, and we want to make sure that the federal government takes all the steps they need to ensure that any release of this vaccine is not driven by politics,” Wiesman said. “... We stand here as a state Department of Health prepared to stick by what we believe as being an important issue, and ensuring safety and the effectiveness of these vaccines.”
Asked by reporters about the logistics of distributing a vaccine when one is ready, Wiesman said preliminary recommendations from the National Academy of Sciences will determine which groups of people get the vaccine first. That draft isn’t finalized, he said, but will likely place at the top the people at the highest risk of COVID-19: health care workers, first responders, other essential workers, and people at the highest risk of severe complications from the disease.
Wiesman noted that whatever vaccine does come first will be in small quantities.
“We should expect a small number of vaccines, maybe in the tens of millions for the entire United States,” he said. “... Then more vaccines will come and the supply will start getting larger.”
He also noted that many of the vaccines being developed require two doses about 20 days apart. It’ll be important to track which vaccine someone gets, in order for them to get the second dose of that same one, he said.
The state already has an immunization information system that health care providers can use to enter data and access records about who has gotten what immunizations. The state is working to make sure that system is “equipped to handle input of COVID vaccine” information, he said.
The state is working with health care providers to make sure they’re ready to receive the vaccines, and that any unused vaccines can be redistributed. Some vaccines might need to be stored at very cold temperatures, Wiesman said.
They’ll also be “looking at whether or not we need to stand up any mass vaccination clinics,” he said.
Health officials are planning for different scenarios, he said, to “be as prepared as we can for whatever vaccine does prove to be safe and effective.”
Holiday weekend raises risk of spreader events
Wiesman and state health officer Dr. Kathy Lofy also asked for caution ahead of the holiday weekend, noting that an increase in cases has followed other holidays such as the Fourth of July.
Masks, social distancing, and limiting interactions remain important, they said. People in Phase 2 counties under the state’s Safe Start plan, such as Pierce and Whatcom, are supposed to limit social interactions to five people outside their household in a week. In Phase 3 counties, such as Thurston, it’s 10.
“Social settings in our personal lives is where a lot of this is occurring,” Wiesman said about the spread of the virus in the state.
Compliance with precautions such as masks is strong at businesses, he said, and “in our personal lives we need to be taking the same kinds of precautions.”
Dr. Lofy talked about how COVID activity is declining in the state overall, but cautioned that “we’re not quite yet at the level where we really want it.”
The state is at about 96 cases per 100,000 people over a two-week period. The goal is 25.
This story was originally published September 2, 2020 at 5:56 PM.
