Aspirus head optimistic on COVID-19 vaccine, cautious on availability

Matt Heywood, Apsirus system corporate executive officer (CEO) and president, issued a strong caution as he celebrated the prospect of effective COVID-19 vaccines becoming available in the near future.

“So it’s not going to get us through the holidays. It’s not going to be here in a mass quantity until probably later spring and summer. When hopefully, we’re going to get somewhat back to normal,” he said.

“There is a lot of logistics from a study that says we have a 95% effective vaccine or two maybe, to actually distributing it to 300-something million people who are going to need two doses and some of the drugs and vaccines need to be kept at a certain temperature and are not easily distributed,” he added.

In anticipating the pressure for family gatherings during the upcoming holidays, “If we don’t all work together to manage how we behave, it could continue to get worse,” Heywood said.

This growing pressure can be met with wearing masks, limiting or skipping trips to public spaces and maintaining social distancing, Heywood said.

The CEO echoed state and federal agencies’ emphasis on Thanksgiving and Christmas as a time for restricting gatherings to immediate family, or people now living in the same house.

Those considering getting together with extended family need to quarantine for 14 days to limit person-to-person spread in public, Heywood said.

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It is likely a vaccine will be available to healthcare staff earlier but that too will be determined in the next few months, Heywood said.