HOUSTON — Hospitals officials in the Texas Medical Center say they’re ready to start immunizing thousands of employees a day as soon as the Pfizer vaccine is approved.
The FDA will consider Pfizer’s two-dose vaccine for emergency use authorization this week.
Dr. David Callender, the CEO of Memorial Hermann Health System, believes that will happen in the days after the hearing.
“Hopefully the 15th, 16th, or 17th we can begin administration,” said Callender.
Last week, the Texas Department of Health Services released a list of hospitals set to receive the first shipments of Pfizer’s vaccine. More than 56,000 doses will be sent directly to the Houston area.
“We’re told we have been allocated 16,575 doses. We can deliver 1,800 vaccinations per day,” said Dr. Callender. “If you think about those numbers, it will take nine or ten days to vaccinate our people according to the priority system.”
Houston Methodist is getting 13,000 doses of the vaccine. Employees started signing up for time slots last week. Executive Vice President Roberta Schwartz says vaccines will be administered every five to ten minutes at seven different locations in each hospital in the Methodist system.
“We will vaccinate all 13,000 people in a week,” said Schwartz.
At both hospitals, officials say staff with the highest risk of exposure to COVID-19 will be offered shots first. That includes staff in COVID units as well as employees who interface with the general public.
“It’s voluntary. We really can’t make acceptance of the vaccine a requirement with it being authorized on an emergency use basis,” said Dr. Callender.
Callender says he’ll consider the information presented to the FDA this week before making a final recommendation to employees. However, he says the research so far has shown the Pfizer vaccine to be safe and 94% effective after the second dose.