Vaccines will be ‘scarce resource for a really long time,’ Indiana health officials say

Indiana has received nearly 100,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19 since Friday, and hospitals already have vaccinated more than 33,000 front-line health care workers, with thousands more on the waiting list. And starting next week, staff and residents of nursing homes will begin getting vaccinated.

Yet it will be weeks, if not months, before the general public can receive the vaccines, state officials said Tuesday.

The state is sticking to its protocol, which calls for first vaccinating health care workers and then vulnerable individuals, such as the elderly and those with severe health conditions, said Dr. Lindsay Weaver, Indiana’s chief medical officer, at Gov. Eric Holcomb’s weekly press briefing.

Indiana received 55,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine on Friday, and another 39,000 doses on Monday, which is a fraction of the state’s needs, Weaver said.

“This is going to be a scarce resource for a really long time,” she said.

She added that a second vaccine, made by Moderna Inc., could be available to Indiana in coming days, which would help alleviate the shortage and get more doses to front-line workers faster. Indiana has about 400,000 health care workers, and more than 50,000 have already made appointments to get vaccinated.

“Right now, we are 100% focused on vaccinating all of our health care providers, and we expect that focus to remain the same for much of January,” Weaver said.

More than half of Indiana’s population is expected to be interested in a vaccination, but about one-third of Hoosiers have expressed reservations. In response, the state is preparing a public-awareness campaign to highlight the benefits of vaccinations.

The state health department is preparing a dashboard on vaccinations that it hopes to unveil in coming weeks, which would show how many doses have been administered, with breakouts by demographic group.

Holcomb urged Hoosiers to trust the science and to get a vaccine as soon as one is available to them. In the meantime, he said, people should continue to wear face masks, avoid groups and stay home as much as possible.

“Of course, the vaccine gives us an immense reservoir of optimism to draw upon, but it is our responsibility to do everything we can for one another,” Holcomb said.

In the meantime, hospitals are continuing to treat people infected by the virus, with more than 3,000 Hoosiers hospitalized on Tuesday, a slight decrease from recent days. Dr. Kristina Box, Indiana state health commissioner, said several hospitals in central Indiana went “on diversion” over the weekend, meaning they turned away ambulances for lack of available beds and staff.

She said hospitals have been working on high alert, with little rest, since March. Yet the number of hospitalizations remains too high, and the number of available ICU beds is less than 15% in some parts of the state, she said.

“These numbers are stressing out our health care system,” Box said.