Arizona turned in a draft COVID-19 vaccination plan to the CDC this week. The 51-page plan covers the processes they plan to use to make decisions when the time comes to roll out SARS CoV2 vaccine. The plan includes things like how allocation decisions will be made, how initial priority populations will be identified, logistical decision-making regarding specific requirements for vaccine deployment, and how providers will be recruited and enrolled for the COVID-19 vaccine.
Importantly, the draft version includes county health departments and tribal governments as key decision-makers in the planning and execution of the plan. Local health leaders will be responsible for allocating a vaccine by priority. The priorities will include pharmacies, long-term care facilities, pre-designated clinics or hospital locations, then prioritized target groups, and lastly the general population.
Much of the analysis and recommendations will come out of a state Vaccine and Antiviral Prioritization Advisory Committee (VAPAC) which consists of “… Subject Matter Experts who are responsible for reviewing the CDC, Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, and National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine guidance and providing recommendations to the Department to develop a state vaccine allocation plan.”
The members of the VAPAC committee are listed on the last page of the report (page 49). As you read the plan, pay particular attention to the importance that is placed on the VAPAC committee recommendations.
The document is important in that it lays out a process for decision making when the vaccines arrive- but it doesn’t provide the detail the likes of which one would see in an Operational Plan. Once the FDA, CDC, ACIP make some key decisions about the vaccine’s approval, vaccine recommendations, cold chain requirements, and recommended priority populations I’ll expect to see a final Operational Plan which will flesh out many of the details.
Stephanie Innes wrote a good detailed article about the Plan in the Arizona Republic this weekend.