The U.S. government's plan to vaccinate hundreds of millions of Americans against the coronavirus, potentially save hundreds of thousands of lives and return the country to normalcy may hinge on the effectiveness of an index card.
Two separate vaccines due to be released from pharmaceutical firm Pfizer and biotech Moderna appear to be more than 90% effective in preventing COVID-19. Critically, however, that's only after people receive two doses taken 21 days apart for Pfizer's vaccine and 28 days apart for Moderna's remedy.
The upshot: A major logistical challenge involved in inoculating the bulk of the U.S. population will be to ensure that people return for their second shot. The federal government's solution: A 4-by-6 index card.
Millions of the cards will be shipped with the vaccine kits sent to hospitals and other distribution centers. Health care providers will fill out the card with "accurate vaccine information," including a written reminder of the patient's appointment for a second dose. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says providers should encourage patients with smartphones to take a picture of the card in case it gets lost.
But with just a few weeks before the first COVID-19 vaccine becomes available, a number of experts told CBS MoneyWatch they are concerned that the CDC's measures to ensure people return for a second dose could prove inadequate.
"I hope the CDC has something else planned," said Mark Fendrick, a medical school professor at the University of Michigan. "But I don't know of anything other than the index card."
Nightmare scenario: Mutation
The consequences of people skipping a second vaccine dose could be significant. Although the coronavirus is unlikely to become vaccine-resistant, that could change if millions of individuals only get one dose of a vaccine that requires two treatments, said biologist David Kennedy, who studies viruses at Penn State University and co-authored a recent paper urging drug makers to look for signs of mutation in the coronavirus.
The problem, according to Kennedy: If someone who has had only a single dose is exposed to the virus, their immune system might not be able to kill it off. That could allow the virus to develop a response to the limited immunity provided by that one dose.
"In imperfect vaccines, that's where we see resistance pop-up," Kennedy said. "The more individuals who have one dose of these vaccines, the more concerned I would be."
Second shot no-shows could undermine COVID-19 vaccination efforts
Experts say a vaccine-resistant mutation is more likely if millions of Americans end up getting only one dose.
www.cbsnews.com
Over/under on America whiffing this one in a way that's only possible here, like we're doing in every other aspect of our response to covid?
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