FINDLAY, Ohio — Mayor Christina Muryn of Findlay joined five other mayors from across the country in attending the White House Vaccine Summit on Tuesday.
The vaccine summit also included leaders from the private sector and Operation Warp Speed.
Vaccine developers Pfizer and Moderna declined invitations to attend.
The summit spanned three and a half hours, with President Donald Trump delivering opening remarks and signing an executive order to ensure that vaccines purchased using taxpayer dollars were provided to Americans before being shared with other countries.
During the summit, officials detailed the FDA’s evaluation of vaccines, how the vaccines will be distributed and properly handled by shipping companies including the need for cold storage, how vaccines will be administered and the role of jurisdictions in vaccine administration.
Dr. Moncef Slaoui, an expert in vaccinations, spoke during the conference and explained that the vaccines were expedited by running vaccination testing in parallel, rather than the traditional linear process. According to Slaoui, advancement in technology allowed manufacturers to cut the front end of the development process from years down to weeks.
The program ended with remarks from Vice President Mike Pence, leader of the White House Coronavirus Task Force.
“Now that a vaccine is expected in the next week or two, we are ready to put our plans in action to roll out the Ohio Vaccination plan,” said Muryn in a press release on Wednesday. “Hancock Public Health and I have been in regular conversations with the Ohio Department of Health and Governor DeWine’s Office on how we will make the vaccine available locally. As soon as we know the number of vaccines we will receive in the first shipment, we will begin to execute the plans in place.”
Slaoui said during the summit that the current administration expects 20 million Americans to be able to be vaccinated by end of 2020. They expect an additional 30 million in January and 50 million Americans in February.
Ohio Department of Health’s Vaccination Plan has a four phase distribution plan.
Phase 1a: (~ 1.3MM Ohioans) Healthcare Workers, EMS Responders, Resident and Staff at nursing homes, assisted living facilities, psychiatric hospitals. Individuals, and those who work with individuals that have disabilities, in group homes or centers.
Phase 1b: (~4.5MM Ohioans) Essential Workers including lower exposure First Responders and High Risk Citizens
Phase 1c: (~.5MM Ohioans) 65+ Year Olds
Phase 2: (~100k Ohioans) Other Older Adults
Phase 3: (~4MM Ohioans) Young Adults
Phase 4: (~1.3MM Ohioans) All Remaining
The target for herd immunity is 60-70% of the population either receiving the vaccination or having the antibodies from having exposure to the virus. According to the press release, the Ohio Department of Health is estimating that 10% of Ohioans have already been exposed and have the antibodies.
In Hancock County, officials hope to have 47,744 individuals choose to be vaccinated out of the total population of 75,783.
Vaccination is not mandatory and will be available to those interested during each corresponding phase.
The White House Vaccine Summit can be watched in full at this link.