If officials are one of New Jersey’s 4.7 million residents eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine on Thursday, it won’t be as simple as calling your GP, officials warn.
Primary care and GPs have struggled to get doses of the vaccines, leaving hospitals the largest distributor yet, Drs. Sean Cook, a family physician and board member of the New Jersey Association of Family Physicians, told NJ Advance Media.
Cook, who practices at Green Brook Family Medicine in Green Brook, said doctors’ offices that want to give it a chance face obstacles to obtaining the correct vaccination boxes and the vaccine itself.
“We ordered another vaccination box, which (the supplier) can not even tell us when we get it, because they can not make it fast enough,” Cook said.
The Pfizer vaccine requires ultra-cooling, which is difficult for many doctor’s offices, while the Moderna vaccine can rely on more traditional refrigerators. Both vaccines require two shots with a few weeks apart.
“Some larger medical groups may have been able to meet the requirements, including the storage needs of the vaccine (cold chain),” Nancy Kearney, director of communications for the state Department of Health, said in an email.
Cook can help speed up the process by using GPs as distributors of vaccines. New Jersey hopes to vaccinate 70%, or 4.7 million people, by spring. So far, 264,000 doses have been given.
“We are familiar with the prescriptions for purchasing, shipping, storage, administration, reporting – the daily practice for GPs, there is honestly nothing new about this,” Cook said.
And having a good relationship with patients can help satisfy the problems people have about the vaccine. There is skepticism from some because of its unprecedented implementation period, he says.
Cook said his practice partners, along with several health departments and clients in the province, conduct annual flu clinics so that they have experience with large-scale vaccination efforts.
But very limited supplies have made COVID-19 vaccine partnerships impossible so far, he said.
“At this point, even the people with whom we have relationships do not yet have vaccines,” Cook said.
There are currently more than 100 locations offering the vaccine in New Jersey, including departments of health, pharmacies in grocery stores, and “mega-websites” set up by the state.
“As more vaccine becomes available, we definitely want to get it in more primary care offices,” Kearney said.
In addition to health workers and first responders, smokers over the age of 65 and 1 million people with chronic illnesses may be eligible for the vaccine on Thursday.
“I do not think health departments and hospitals alone will be able to get enough vaccinations,” Cook said.
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