As the vaccine rollout approaches, counties are rushing to make sure they’ll be ready.
But health officials are still facing many unknowns.
Santa Clara County officials announced Wednesday that they have now submitted a vaccine plan to California officials, as required by the state.
"The plan describes at a high level how we will engage the community and how we will join with healthcare partners to distribute vaccine allocated to us by the state," said Dr. Jennifer Tong with Santa Clara Valley Medical Center.
Emphasis on the "high level." The plan covers things like how the vaccines will be distributed, how they’ll be stored and how residents will be informed, but the county is making its plan with some significant knowledge gaps.
For example, they still do not know how many vaccines the county will receive.
"The number of doses we will receive will evolve quickly over time since there is more than one vaccine that is scheduled to be reviewed by the FDA over the next two weeks," said Dr. Tong.
Also unknown is how many deep freezers will be available to store the Pfizer vaccine, if approved by the FDA.
But Dr. Tong said despite plenty of moving targets, the county is prepared to adapt and distribute whatever vaccines they receive.
Currently, both Pfizer and Moderna appear to be on the verge of gaining regulatory approval for their vaccines, but the first early batches will only have enough doses to treat a small share of the many who will want them.
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