DENVER — As healthcare providers and county health leaders prepare for the second week of COVID-19 vaccinations in Colorado, we asked some to reflect on unexpected challenges and other surprises during the first week shots were available in the state.
The first vaccines are reserved for healthcare workers and residents in long-term care facilities. During the first week, Colorado was able to offer the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, which received emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, in mid-December.
The Pfizer vaccine must be kept at extremely low temperatures, which providers understood well before the vaccine was authorized. But some were surprised at the extra procedures involved.
“You have three minutes to get them into your ultra-low freezer,” Ganesh Chandran, inpatient pharmacy operations manager at UCHealth’s University of Colorado Hospital.
Chandran said that fact was revealed in the documentation released after the vaccine was authorized, days before his pharmacy received it.
“So we had these speed trials sort of to get this drug in there which was I guess we had sort of planned for it but I didn’t recognize how daunting it would be,” Chandran said.
About midweek, it was revealed nationwide that the vials of Pfizer vaccine included enough for more than the anticipated five doses. Chandran said he had to work with his team to find extra needles, alcohol swabs, syringes and other necessities to give additional doses to patients.
Southwest of his hospital in Gunnison County, Public Health Director Joni Reynolds said paper proved more of a surprise for her. Other vaccines usually include a two-page document form for the patient to read.
“In this document, 12 pages of information, (it is) much denser, much more challenging for individuals to read through and ask questions,” Reynolds said.
She also was somewhat surprised with the reception of the vaccine.
“The individual staff members and the other individuals who came in and were like I want a picture! That I didn’t expect as much,” she said.
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