As Minnesota’s vaccine supply meets demand, distribution focus turns to convenience
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Health leaders say Minnesota’s supply of the COVID-19 vaccine is starting to catch up with demand. But that’s renewing concerns that some vaccine doses may be going to waste.
State health officials say people no longer need to go on their computer at midnight to try to get that vaccination appointment. The situation is now changing.
"We have a lot of vaccine available and we are using it, but we want to make sure we continue to use it and that’s why we are looking at making some adaptations in how we do things," said Kris Ehresmann, the Minnesota Department of Health’s infectious disease director.
Ehresmann said the state won’t get rid of mass vaccine sites but instead try to give more options for people to get vaccines in other ways.
Dr. Bryan Jarabek is Chief Medical Informatics Officer and a hospital physician at M Health Fairview. He also helps lead the Care Delivery System Coalition.
In this Jan. 21, 2021 file photo a medical staff member prepares the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine at Tudor Ranch in Mecca, Calif. With vaccination against COVID-19 in full swing, social platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter say they’ve stepped up their fight against misinformation that aims to undermine trust in the vaccines.[AP Photo/Jae C. Hong]
"Right now we get vials sent with vaccines where they have either six doses or 10 doses in the vial, and what that means is we have to do these mass vaccination locations where we can give six to 10 people the vaccine all at once," Jarabek said.
He said if the national government spent some of its resources to get single-dose vials, it could open up more convenient options.
That’s important because they don’t want to waste vaccines.
According to MDH data, the state has wasted a total of 1,748 doses. That’s compared with nearly 4 million successfully administered shots.
"This week was the first time that we had enough open appointments that we couldn’t meet the metrics of being able to give every vaccine that we were given within seven days," Jarabek said.
Jarabek and Ehresmann said the focus now is convenience.
"We are kind of moving into a phase where we have kind of the next group of individuals who are interested in vaccination but not so interested that they want to drive from the Twin Cities to International Falls to get a dose," Ehresmann said.
Right now more than half of eligible Minnesotans have at least one COVID-19 vaccine dose.