GREEN BAY, Wis (NBC 26) -- Northeast Wisconsin healthcare leaders continue to prepare for the COVID-19 vaccine and its potential arrival. Some say it could start to be administered to some in the state, as soon as next week.
The arrival of a COVID-19 vaccine has been something health care leaders in northeast Wisconsin have been preparing for, for months. Laura Alar, the Bellin Health Systems Director of Pharmacy says with two potential vaccines being looked into by the FDA for emergency use authorization, her staff is preparing.
"Having nursing involved, pharmacy involved, our faculty individuals are involved in planning the logistics."
Alar says right now two of the most promising vaccines under review by the FDA appear to be effective 94 to 95 percent of the time. Her team anticipates one of the vaccines rolling out in Wisconsin very soon.
"From a safety standpoint, and from a managing the vaccine standpoint, I think we're in pretty good hands."
The vaccine isn't in the hands of health care leaders in Wisconsin just yet, though. But many health care leaders are optimistic that the state is not far from that happening.
"Technically we could start to see that vaccine in our state next week. But it's got to go through its inventory process, it's distribution process. So maybe as early as next week, we'll start to see our first vaccinated individuals," says Dr. Ashok Rai the President and CEO of Prevea Health.
Dr. Rai says health care systems across our region are ready to administer the vaccine, they just need manufacturers of the drug and the federal government, to get it to them.
"This will be the largest operational lift in American healthcare history, if not worldwide healthcare history. But you need to do it right and as quickly as possible."
Dr. Rai believes the majority of Wisconsin's general public likely won't have access to the vaccine until several months into 2021. But he and others encourage the public to continue keeping their guard up against the virus until our region gets a handle on its spread.
"It's important to maintain our masking and our social distancing even if we receive the vaccine," says Alar.
"This is not the time to lay off the gas. This is the time to make sure we're staying physically distanced, we're masking up, we're not going to work with symptoms, we're getting tested," added Dr. Rai.
