COVID-19 vaccine mockup. (Photo: Daniel Schludi)
The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) announced in a Feb. 2 press release that over 1M total doses of either the Pfizer-BioNtech or Moderna COVID-19 vaccine had been administered to date.
The VA says that for veterans, 44,000 had received a full vaccine while 582,000 are awaiting a second dose (doses must be taken two weeks apart to be fully effective). The VA notes that over 402,000 doses had been administered to VA health care workers and federal partners as well.
The VA also announced that going forward it will be publishing vaccine numbers for public accountability. According to the new website, the Greater Los Angeles Health Care System, for example, had fully vaccinated 2,456 veterans as of Feb. 5, or about 36 percent of the total number of veterans enrolled at that facility.
Otherwise, approximately 61,000 VA employees across the United States are still waiting for a second dose, after which the remaining doses are expected to be administered to enrolled veterans. The VA says that is following CDC COVID-19 guidelines and that employees are currently the priority as they are more likely to come into contact with the virus, which could adversely affect treatment quality for all veterans.
Also noted in the press release, the VA expects a shortage of vaccines at some of its 215 administering sites during February. However, weekly shipments of the vaccine are expected to increase in March.
A Third Vaccine Could Be Offered by March
Vaccine shipments could be boosted if Johnson & Johnson is granted emergency FDA approval for its COVID-19 vaccine. The company anticipates being able to ship up to 100M doses of the vaccine by June if its version of the vaccine is allowed to enter the market.
The VA has not specifically commented on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, however, it does note in the aforementioned press release that the federal government is working with the private sector to procure additional vaccine options.
As such, it is likely that if the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is approved, it will follow similar implementation strategies as the Moderna vaccine.
Author: Christian Southards
Coming from a family with a proud military background and wanting to contribute his writing skills to a worthy cause, Christian began writing for the California American Legion in August of 2020. His father is a 25-year Army Veteran and his grandfather served in the Navy during Vietnam.
