Pfizer and Moderna and any other companies coming online need to make a video about the preparation of the vaccine and how best to administer it. Each of the vaccines will be unique in its preparation and if this confusion has resulted it is because there is no leadership at the federal level in anticipating any problems.
The videos should address doctors, nurses, and pharmacists so they know what has gone into the vaccine they are administering.
The videos can be accessed from the company’s website under a tab where “ Instruction videos” can be found. There should be a Frequently Asked Questions webpage and as a courtesy “Professional Contact” webpage. Professionals should apply for access with their credentials.
There is nothing wrong to seek funding from the federal government for reimbursement of these web services and professionals to staff it.
See, the mixing and administration of the vaccine seems fairly straight forward to me. But, I am not on the front lines and making the decisions under a lot of pressure to make those decisions.
To me, if a vial states there are five doses in the vial then there are five doses and the administration amount is going to include the dilutant. In other words, if the vaccine is 1 milliliter and the dilutant is 1 milliliter then the administration amount is 2 milliliters. The vial defines the administration regardless of the amount of dilutant.
There can be questions as to exactly how the preparations are conducted. Does the dilutant get added to the vial while the vaccines are still in the vial in its entirety? Or. Is the vaccine first drawn up in the injection syringe and then the dilutant added to the syringe and mixed with the plunger creating an air bubble to allow mixing? Then the air bubble is ejected to allow smooth administration of the vaccine.
This should have been worked out ahead of the administration of the vaccine to the public. This is not the fault of the company. They wrote directions and those directions were misinterpreted by professionals now administering an mRNA vaccine for the first time in their lives. It sounds as though the pharmacists were being very, very cautious with a vaccine that is supposed to vanquish a very dangerous virus. I don't blame the pharmacists. The most responsible party here is the federal government and its lack of oversight of the final distribution of the vaccine and the education of the professionals responsible for reconstituting the vaccine out of cold storage.
Pfizer and Moderna and other companies producing vaccines are going to have to bring pharmacists up to speed in working with a very frozen vaccine that is then thawed and then diluted with a warmer fluid to complete the melting of ice shards in the vial or in the injection syringe.
No one is leading this effort and it seems completely obvious to me. There are shipment amounts in question and now the pharmacists are concerned over a vaccine to create immunity to a dangerous virus. This is all a leadership problem and only one man is responsible namely Trump and his lack of knowledge of public policy.
By Olivia Goldhill
With the Covid-19 vaccine in short supply, (click here) hospital pharmacists found themselves in the unexpected position of throwing away one in every six doses of the first Pfizer-BioNTech vaccines distributed this week in the United States.
The confusion came over labeling: The vaccine comes in vials labeled as containing enough for five doses. But pharmacists discovered that, after thawing and mixing the contents with a diluent, each vial contained enough vaccine for six doses. Without explicit approval from the manufacturer, that final dose had to be discarded.
“It was overtly clear early on there’s some extra volume,” said Russell Findlay, pharmacy manager at University of Utah Health. His colleagues called Pfizer on Tuesday to ask if they could use the extra dose, said Findlay, but the company wouldn’t give a definitive answer....
