General public likely won’t get COVID-19 vaccines until well into 2021, Gavin Newsom says

Even if vaccines for COVID-19 are approved in the next month, Californians shouldn’t expect widespread availability until sometime next year, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday, tempering expectations that the end of the pandemic could be on the horizon.

“Don’t anticipate or expect that you can go down to a local pharmacy anytime this year and get a vaccination,” Newsom said during a press conference. “We don’t expect mass availability until 2021… Vaccines will not end this epidemic overnight.”

Newsom said the state has been preparing since April for what will be a monumental effort to vaccinate the most vulnerable people first and then broaden availability to the general public.

In the first few months, even the most optimistic projections indicate only as many as 1.5 million Californians could be vaccinated this year, assuming a vaccine is approved quickly, Newsom said. Roughly 40 million people live in California.

Health care workers who treat COVID-19 patients will be the first in line for a vaccine, according to a draft distribution plan California officials released Monday. Other essential workers and people who are at high risk of dying of the coronavirus will be next. Newsom said Monday that people in nursing homes will also be high on the priority list for getting vaccines.

Others will likely have to wait months, potentially well into next year, for vaccines to become available, Newsom said. He said his administration is working to ensure that the state distribute vaccines equitably, and doesn’t neglect traditionally underserved people in Black, Latino and rural communities.

“We are going to be, in 2021, slogging our way through the distribution of millions and millions of these doses of vaccine,” he said.

Scientists are still working to determine whether potential vaccines effectively inoculate people against the virus.

The two vaccine candidates farthest along in clinical trials, from pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna, require cold storage and two separate doses spaced out over weeks. To immunize the population on a broad scale, California is working to increase cold storage capacity and ensure its public health databases can handle a huge volume of information about who is vaccinated and when.

The state will also need to stock up on necessary medical supplies, including dry ice, syringes and alcohol.

Amid concerns that the federal government could rush a potential vaccine for political reasons, Newsom also announced that California won’t begin immunizing people until an independent panel of experts assembled by the state says it’s safe. That panel includes 11 experts in epidemiology, public health and immunizations from various organizations including the University of California and Stanford.

He said it will be essential for the government to prove that a vaccine is safe and effective, and that any health data collected as part of the state’s mass immunization effort will be kept secure.

“This vaccine plan will move at the speed of trust,” he said.