How Companies Are Lining Up Shots for Workers

Maderna's COVID nineteen vaccine is expected to gain clearance from the Food and Drug Administration as soon as today. That's after a panel of outside advisors backed authorizing the drug yesterday in a twenty zero vote with one abstention. F d A Commissioner Stephen Hahn said that the agency will work quickly toward authorizing the vaccine. The European Commission has doubled its order of Madernas shots to one hundred and

sixty million doses. The first COVID nineteen shots have already been given to more than one point one million people in four countries, according to data collected by Bloomberg. It's the start of the biggest vaccination campaign in history and

one of the largest logistical challenges ever undertaken. The Fiser bio en tech vaccine was rolled out this week beginning with healthcare workers, and twenty four states reported the first forty nine thousand, five hundred and sixty seven doses administered. Those numbers are expected to surge in coming days as more states work through their early allocation of shots and begin to report their numbers. Finally, some U s States say the federal government has cut their allocations of the

Fiser vaccine for next week without explanation. Oregon's allotment of FISER doses for next week was cut by forty according to Governor Kate Brown in a tweet on Thursday evening. Washington State had been expecting more than seventy four thousand doses of the shot for next week, but Operation warp Speed, the US Vaccine Development Program told them the state would

receive forty four thousand, eight hundred and fifty instead. Before the Fiser vaccine began to roll out this week, states reported widespread confusion and frequently changing estimates for how many doses they should expect. In a statement on Thursday, Washington State officials said they were not given an explanation as to why the state's allocation was reduced, and they don't

know how much they'll be allocated beyond next week. And now for today's main story, US companies are taking some of the first concrete steps to prepare for the unprecedented and complex task of distributing hundreds of millions of doses to the American workforce. For some, that means procuring deep freezers to store vaccines or setting up health clinics at their facilities. Others are weighing whether to require vaccination for

employees returning to in person work. Several industries are lobbying to get their workers near the front of the line after the first doses go to healthcare workers and nursing home residents. I spoke to Ryan be about a crucial vector for vaccine distribution the American workplace. So, Ryan, what are some of the companies or even industries that have discussed that they may make vaccines available to their employees and how exactly are they going to be doing this.

It's still very much a working problem, if you will, but you know, some companies have started to take some of the first concrete steps to to prepare for their turn,

if you will, UM in the vaccine distribution process. So Ford Motor Company has gone out and purchased about a dozen UH ultra cold deep freezers that are capable of storing the Maderna and Visor vaccines at like Arctic like temperatures of negative seventy degrees celsius negative forty degrees celsius um, and they're keeping them in their facilities for the eventual point at which they will be able to distribute the

vaccine to their workers. Standards and Farms, one of the largest poultry producers, they've already set up health clinics to UH, you know, provide COVID testing for their workers at their UH at their facilities, and right now they p in to administer vaccines at those facilities to for employers who want them. And UH A lot of companies that we spoke to said that, you know, they were reluctant to comment, and they declined to comment just because they're still trying

to figure this out. There's still a lot of work that needs to happen at the federal and state levels UH to you know, provide companies with additional clarity about when they might have access to vaccines for their workers, how they will receive those vaccines. A lot of companies are still waiting to see sort of how these pieces all come together to figure out how they fit in.

I mean, do these companies, whether or not they've announced any formal plan of distributing or making these vaccines available.

Have these companies announced any timeline as far as when they expect to receive doses of these vaccines or even to make these plans in effect or essentially roll out these plans um I assume in not really Actually the companies that do talk about their plans, they what they lack is UH clarity in terms of timing, And I think that's a reflection of the lack of clarity in terms of timing and availability that we're seeing from the

federal level. As these vaccines continue to go through the FDA approval process, and as the FDA advisory committee that creates recommendations about which groups of society, which UH segments of the workforce, which portions of the population UH should

receive priority for whichever vaccines become available. Keep in mind that right now, UH that advisory board has basically only set recommendations for the very very first UH distributions of vaccines, which they've said should go to healthcare workers at risk health care workers and UH folks in long term care facilities like nursing homes, where we saw some of the biggest,

most deadly outbreaks early on in the pandemic. As more vaccines go through that process, UH, I think we'll have a better sense and I think companies will have a better sense of the timing of the distribution. Now in addition to timelines, and you already mentioned a little bit in terms of the actual equipment and logistics needed for storing and and even distributing these vaccines. I mean, Fiser's vaccine into itself requires quite low temperatures that a normal

refrigerator cannot really accommodate. So I was wondering just if you might go into some of the specifics about the equipment that is needed to store this vaccine by a company, how they are acquiring the special equipment, which understandably is going to be quite in demand over the next coming months. Sure, I spoke to UH an executive at a smaller UH specialty freezer manufacturer in Cincinnati, Ohio. They're working around the clock to fulfill you know, skyrocketing demand for their specialty

ultric cold freezers. That's the sort of the term of art for these types of specialty freezers that are needed to store the Fiser and Madurana vaccines. So he's seen you know demand you know, uh to go through the roof for these devices. Um, even from companies that that

never needed these types of freezers before. Mom and pop pharmacies, Uh, small independent corner pharmacies that aren't part of the big chains like CBS, right or Walgreens are ordering these at a fairly rapid clip because you know, they anticipate being part of the distribution process as well at some point. Uh. Most of the demand that he's seen is coming from hospital systems obviously, labs, um, you know, big pharmacy chains, etcetera.

Are some companies or industries in particular trying to say, move to the front of the line, maybe get the vaccine sooner than others. And I'm wondering if this is particularly the case for industries that have been hard hit by the pandemic. Um. We haven't talked about it yet, but let's say the airlines or even those in the

food industry. Yeah, no, you hit on two of the primary groups that we've seen advocate for getting I don't want to say the front of the line, because pretty much everyone agrees that the front of the line is are are healthcare workers and long term care residents are the front of the line. UM. But we are seeing you know, some you know, some industries advocate to get their workers nearer to the front of the line. Uh,

particularly those in the food industry. We've seen both lobbying organizations, trade associations, and unions all advocating to get for example, meat packing workers to get them priority status because they are front line essential workers. We've seen the same from airlines. The primary trade association for UH big airlines like Southwest

Airlines and UH and and Delta for example. They've they've urged, you know, federal policymakers to you know, treat front line airline workers like flight attendants and pilots and gate agents and everything like that, uh, you know, as essential workers to get them priority for a vaccine. UM. A lot of the activity, as you point out, though, has come from the food sector. I mean there are keep in mind, UH meat packing plants in particular, where some of the

hardest hit workers and and and workplaces. Early on in the pandemic, we saw you know, multiple shutdowns and big outbreaks at at major meat processing facilities that created the potential for food shortages. So yeah, organizations that represent workers in those groups and are are definitely advocating to get their workers, uh, you know, a priority status for vaccine distribution as soon as possible. So one angle to companies making a vaccine available to their employees might be that

they will require employees to receive the vaccine. Have you heard about anything along those lines in terms of a requirement for employees to get vaccinated. So it's kind of a tricky situation. Um, so let's just take us to up back. So, you know, polling has shown that there's actually a pretty significant degree of apprehension or reluctance among Americans to actually, you know, get this vaccine once it's available.

So if you couple that with you know, companies trying to you know, consider whether or not they need to make it a requirement of employment. If companies are going to mandate that their workers get a vaccine, I mean, you know, companies can't run the risk of losing a lot of their workers if that reluctance or apprehension sort

of hardens into an outright refusal to receive the vaccine. Right, So, uh, companies buy and large that that that that we've spoken to anyway, and employer groups that we've spoken to have said that most employers are not going to make it mandatory, They're gonna make it voluntary, but strongly encourage their employees to get this vaccine. UM and some companies are going

to sort of lead by example. UM Delta Airline CEO At Bastion said on NBC's Today Show that you know, he can't wait to get a vaccine, So you're hearing some messaging like that from the c suite at at lots of companies. The CEO of Sanderson Farms said that, you know, he plans to get vaccinated on video and then share that video with company employees to encourage them

to do the same. And some of the experts that I've spoken to said that, you know, that's a really important part of what companies need to do in terms of educating and messaging and leading by example to make sure that you know that that folks actually do go ahead and get vaccinated. So Ryan, finally, you know, we've largely been talking about companies that are either national or even international that have the resources to either acquire and

or distribute vaccines to their employees or even beyond. But does perhaps edge out smaller companies from from getting the vaccine as quickly or what have you heard about smaller companies in terms of potentially getting ready for the availability of a vaccine? Well, I mean it certainly could. I mean keep in mind a lot of the stuff we still have to see how it all plays out. But you know that being said, uh, it's it's it's a

really big challenge for small businesses. I mean especially small small businesses like restaurants, independent bars, um, you know, just you know, with a few dozen employees or twenty employees.

I mean, they don't have the kind of uh, you know, lobbying budgets that big companies do to go talk to the f d A and you know, send letters and and and do all of the advocacy that a lot of the big companies are doing right now, particularly in the food industry and the airline industry that we've mentioned earlier, to you know, advocate for their workers to get front

of the line status. There are trade associations that are doing that in there are small business groups that are trying to represents it, uh, you know, these smaller employers to make sure that they're not overlooked and to make sure that the vaccine distribution plan is equitable. But yeah, it's a challenge. I mean, these smaller companies have had to deal with you know, potential you know, outbreaks among their workforce and you know, particularly the bar and restaurant industry.

I mean, I'm sure this the situation is is the same, you know, nationally, but it's just a huge challenge for these business operators to you know, manage all of this with capacity restrictions and limited indoor dining and so adding on top of that this question about how they as employers can make a vaccine available to their workers. It's just it's it's tough. That was Ryan b and that's

it for our show today. For coverage of the outbreak from one twenty bureaus around the world, visit Bloomberg dot com slash coronavirus and if you like the show, please leave us a review and a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to help more listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily edition is produced by Tophor Foreheads Jordan Gaspore, Magnus Henriksson and me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported by Ryan Bean, original music

by Leo Sedrin. Our editors are Rick Shine and Francesca Levi. Francesca Levi is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening.