With a little less university-specific news this week, I want to take a look at where things stand on Iowa’s COVID-19 rollout and where we may be going from here.
Iowa’s spot in the race for states to vaccinate their populations has moved around, but today remains relatively high in percentage of the population who have received their first dose, at number 15 among the 50 states. But it comes in almost last, ahead of only Utah, based on the percent that has received a full vaccination. Getting the first shots out is still an important goal, as recent studies have found that even one dose of the Pfizer vaccine seems to reduce transmission.
The Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a single-shot vaccine, was approved over the weekend, with a first shipment of 3.9 million doses going out today. This handy graphic by student journalist and COVID tracker extraordinaire Benjy Renton shows how many doses each state will get in the first shipment. Iowa is set to receive 25,600. That’s on top of the 65,500 double-doses of the other vaccines set to go out tomorrow, effectively increasing Iowa’s allotment by 40%.
Johnson & Johnson is a promising development, but may not be an immediate game changer in the vaccine supply: officials said distribution of this vaccine may take a while to get up and running. J&J is hoping to deliver 16 million more doses by April, but most of that may come closer to the end of March, the New York Times reported.
Iowa is hoping to move on to the next phase of its rollout plan by early March. At a news conference on Thursday, Gov. Kim Reynolds shared projections from the Iowa Department of Public Health on the next few months of vaccinations.
The state is planning to begin vaccinating certain essential workers and people with disabilities in early March, Reynolds said on Thursday. By April, vaccines are expected to be opened up to anyone over 16. This is a very optimistic timeline. Most states don’t seem to have an estimate on when the general population will be eligible for the vaccine. Maine is doing a phased approach by age, and doesn’t plan to open the gates fully until July.
While the Johnson & Johnson vaccine will be available for eligible populations soon, the relatively lower efficacy rate compared to Moderna and Pfizer could cause some to doubt its effectiveness and want a specific vaccine. But the vaccine is still incredibly effective, health experts are trying to convey.
As UIHC’s Dan Diekema points out in this video, it’s been shown to be 100% effective in preventing deaths and provides 85% efficacy against severe COVID illness. And compared to other vaccines, Johnson & Johnson’s 72% efficacy is pretty high. Seasonal flu vaccines have about a 60% efficacy rate on a good year.
So long story short: The more people who have a vaccine, whatever the brand, the less the virus will spread, which is what this is all about.
That’s all I’ve got for this week — I could take a look at some new higher-ed bills in the Legislature, but it’s just more of the same. One of these weeks I’ll do another round-up of where things stand. In the meantime follow the Daily Iowan’s politics section for more timely updates.