The coronavirus vaccine rollout faces challenges from logistical supply issues and vaccine hesitancy among healthcare staff and the general public. From a reproductive health provider perspective, the big question is how to handle the rollout and overcome challenges on both the supply and demand sides.

The new COVID-19 vaccine provide good news for a pandemic-weary healthcare world, offering case managers and other hospital professionals an opportunity to become vaccinated against COVID-19. Case managers should expect uncertainty about how the first vaccines are distributed.

As the COVID-19 vaccines are rolled out to U.S. healthcare organizations, there will be challenges in access, logistics, and maintaining infection prevention practices. The first step is determining which employees are eligible for the first phase of the vaccine rollout.

The Food and Drug Administration’s vaccine advisory committee has approved the use of the COVID-19 vaccine developed by Pfizer Inc. (NYC) and BioNTech (Mainz, DEU) in the United States for those ages 16 years and older. The first doses will go to healthcare workers and long-term care residents.

Although questions and caveats remain, preliminary reports of two new COVID-19 vaccines in the 90% to 95% effectiveness range have bolstered hopes that healthcare workers may soon be protected and potentially large portions of the public immunized in 2021.