California To Review COVID-19 Vaccines Approved By FDA

CALIFORNIA — Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday that any federally approved vaccine would first need to be screened by the state's newly formed scientific work group before being distributed to Californians. Newsom also announced who will have access to the vaccine in its limited first rollout.

The California Department of Public Health will work with 11 experts on immunizations and public health on California's newly formed Scientific Safety Review Workgroup, that will "independently review" each vaccine.

"Of course we don't take anyones word for it," Newsom said of FDA approved vaccines. "We will do our own independently reviewed process with our world class experts that just happen to live here the state of California."

Public health officials and experts from the state's universities will serve on the work group.

While some officials have said Pfizer and Moderna — the two pharmaceutical companies leading the vaccine race — could approve vaccines as early as November and December of this year, Newsom said any rollout would be extremely limited.

"There are some audacious stretch goals that you've been hearing that have been advanced out of Washington D.C.," Newsom said. "We have different protocols, processes and procedures related to each company and their vaccines."

After vaccines are approved by both the FDA and the state's 11 experts, Newsom said they would be equitably distributed first to "high risk groups." First responders, senior citizens, racial ethnic minority groups, rural communities, those incarcerated and people with disabilities were among those who would first be vaccinated.

But the California governor was confident that vaccines would not be available to the general public until mid 2021.

"We don't anticipate mass availability until 2021, the question for all of us, is that in the first quarter, second or third quarter of 2021?" Newsom said.

Some 45 million vaccines from both Pfizer and Moderna were estimated to be released in the nation's first rollout, Newsom said. But vaccines would need to be administered twice and divided up between each state.

"I don't want people to run with this number," Newsom said. "...don't anticipate or expect that you can go down to the local pharmacy any time in this calendar year."

The governor estimated that somewhere in the ballpark of 1-2 million vaccines could be available for Californians when the first rollout comes.

"We have roughly that many people in our healthcare delivery system," he said.

Newsom urged Californians not to view the coming vaccines as an overnight fix for COVID-19, asserting that mask-wearing would likely be needed until the vaccine was mass distributed.

Both vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna could also pose a storage challenge for the state as one would require extra cold storage and the other would require less freezing temperatures to store.

The news comes days after Dr. Anthony Fauci told CBS Evening News a potential pool of six vaccine candidates could be available to the public by next April if they are proven to be safe and effective.

Newsom said the state was given more than $28 million in federal aid last week for the vaccine rollout in exchange for submitting its 84-page vaccine plan to the Centers For Disease Control.

The state reported a 4 percent decrease in hospitalizations in the last 14-days and recorded 2,966 cases over a 7-day average.