The major hurdle for new COVID vaccines to be distributed in Nevada is that Silver State regulations mandate that the rapidly evolving and increasingly vaccine skeptical Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices weighs in before these can be administered to locals.
Local pharmacies from Walgreens to CVS are on standby for the new ready to ship Moderna and Pfizer vaccines with the Sanofi Novavax shot also soon to be available, but in Nevada pharmacists must wait for the CDC advisory committee to make the decision on whether these can be distributed within the Silver State.
The body is supposed to meet starting September 18th, meaning the vaccine might not be available for cleared FDA demographics until late September or early October, if at all.
This go round, the FDA approved populations are the 65 and older and for those six months to 64 only if they have an underlying high risk health condition, but the advisory committee could go in a different direction.
In Massachusetts the governor there facing a similar logjam than Nevada due to similar holding patterns announced immediate measures to ensure residents have access to the vaccine, whatever the body decides even though that state was supposed to wait as well.
Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. plans to nominate seven new advisers to the committee. All 17 previous members were fired in June, before eight doctors and researchers were appointed, half of them who have expressed vaccine skepticism. One immediately stepped down due to financial conflicts of interest.
The panel might also vote to remove childhood shots, after already voting to rescind recommendations for flu vaccines containing thimerosal.