Week 42.1 coronavirus vaccine availability update – Don’t call yet

Thanks to the public health department and statements from the governor, you would think we are stockpiling COVID-19 vaccine to start to give out to people.

My office cannot accommodate the storage requirements for currently available Pfizer and Moderna vaccines. Because of this limitation we will not be a vaccine site for these vaccines.

We could get some from the Public Health Department, but we would have to become an official public vaccination center. We are not staffed for that magnitude of operation.

The lack of storage capacity and the fact we are not staffed to be a public vaccination center prevents us from helping distribute the first round of vaccines.

Where can you get the COVID-19 vaccine now? – the short answer on December 30, 2020 is nowhere

As of today you can only get the COVID vaccines by invitation from a hospital system, nursing care facility, or the Colorado Department of Health, Prevention, and Environment.

I am still optimistic we may be able to be a vaccine center for our own patients, but I do not anticipate that possibility until the AstraZenica/Oxford and Johnson & Johnson vaccines become available. Those vaccines can be safely stored with available equipment here in the office.

I suspect the next round of vaccines will be most broadly available through the major pharmacy outlets, like CVS, Walgreens, King Soopers, Safeway, etc. IF you have a chance to get the vaccine before we can offer it here, sign up and get it.

We have been inundated with calls this morning asking when folks can come in for their vaccine. The simple answer is not for a while. As soon as my practice can accommodate administration for my patients and follow up for any needed second vaccine, we will be letting everyone know.

I have not heard of additional shipments of vaccine getting to Colorado, so the announcements from public officials appear to be a bit premature.

We will definitely let everyone know as we do about upcoming vaccination opportunities.