Speaker 1: Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day two hundred
Speaker 1: and seventy nine since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic.
Speaker 1: Today's main story. Right now, vaccines are being administered to
Speaker 1: select people throughout US hospitals and healthcare systems, but companies
Speaker 1: are preparing for the moment the shots are more widely
Speaker 1: available and getting ready for the challenge of vaccinating millions
Speaker 1: of workers. But first, here's what happened in virus news today.
Speaker 1: Maderna's COVID nineteen vaccine is expected to gain clearance from
Speaker 1: the Food and Drug Administration as soon as today. That's
Speaker 1: after a panel of outside advisors backed authorizing the drug
Speaker 1: yesterday in a twenty zero vote with one abstention. F
Speaker 1: d A Commissioner Stephen Hahn said that the agency will
Speaker 1: work quickly toward authorizing the vaccine. The European Commission has
Speaker 1: doubled its order of Madernas shots to one hundred and
Speaker 1: sixty million doses. The first COVID nineteen shots have already
Speaker 1: been given to more than one point one million people
Speaker 1: in four countries, according to data collected by Bloomberg. It's
Speaker 1: the start of the biggest vaccination campaign in history and
Speaker 1: one of the largest logistical challenges ever undertaken. The Fiser
Speaker 1: bio en tech vaccine was rolled out this week beginning
Speaker 1: with healthcare workers, and twenty four states reported the first
Speaker 1: forty nine thousand, five hundred and sixty seven doses administered.
Speaker 1: Those numbers are expected to surge in coming days as
Speaker 1: more states work through their early allocation of shots and
Speaker 1: begin to report their numbers. Finally, some U s States
Speaker 1: say the federal government has cut their allocations of the
Speaker 1: Fiser vaccine for next week without explanation. Oregon's allotment of
Speaker 1: FISER doses for next week was cut by forty according
Speaker 1: to Governor Kate Brown in a tweet on Thursday evening.
Speaker 1: Washington State had been expecting more than seventy four thousand
Speaker 1: doses of the shot for next week, but Operation warp Speed,
Speaker 1: the US Vaccine Development Program told them the state would
Speaker 1: receive forty four thousand, eight hundred and fifty instead. Before
Speaker 1: the Fiser vaccine began to roll out this week, states
Speaker 1: reported widespread confusion and frequently changing estimates for how many
Speaker 1: doses they should expect. In a statement on Thursday, Washington
Speaker 1: State officials said they were not given an explanation as
Speaker 1: to why the state's allocation was reduced, and they don't
Speaker 1: know how much they'll be allocated beyond next week. And
Speaker 1: now for today's main story, US companies are taking some
Speaker 1: of the first concrete steps to prepare for the unprecedented
Speaker 1: and complex task of distributing hundreds of millions of doses
Speaker 1: to the American workforce. For some, that means procuring deep
Speaker 1: freezers to store vaccines or setting up health clinics at
Speaker 1: their facilities. Others are weighing whether to require vaccination for
Speaker 1: employees returning to in person work. Several industries are lobbying
Speaker 1: to get their workers near the front of the line
Speaker 1: after the first doses go to healthcare workers and nursing
Speaker 1: home residents. I spoke to Ryan be about a crucial
Speaker 1: vector for vaccine distribution the American workplace. So, Ryan, what
Speaker 1: are some of the companies or even industries that have
Speaker 1: discussed that they may make vaccines available to their employees
Speaker 1: and how exactly are they going to be doing this.
Speaker 1: It's still very much a working problem, if you will,
Speaker 1: but you know, some companies have started to take some
Speaker 1: of the first concrete steps to to prepare for their turn,
Speaker 1: if you will, UM in the vaccine distribution process. So
Speaker 1: Ford Motor Company has gone out and purchased about a
Speaker 1: dozen UH ultra cold deep freezers that are capable of
Speaker 1: storing the Maderna and Visor vaccines at like Arctic like
Speaker 1: temperatures of negative seventy degrees celsius negative forty degrees celsius um,
Speaker 1: and they're keeping them in their facilities for the eventual
Speaker 1: point at which they will be able to distribute the
Speaker 1: vaccine to their workers. Standards and Farms, one of the
Speaker 1: largest poultry producers, they've already set up health clinics to UH,
Speaker 1: you know, provide COVID testing for their workers at their
Speaker 1: UH at their facilities, and right now they p in
Speaker 1: to administer vaccines at those facilities to for employers who
Speaker 1: want them. And UH A lot of companies that we
Speaker 1: spoke to said that, you know, they were reluctant to comment,
Speaker 1: and they declined to comment just because they're still trying
Speaker 1: to figure this out. There's still a lot of work
Speaker 1: that needs to happen at the federal and state levels
Speaker 1: UH to you know, provide companies with additional clarity about
Speaker 1: when they might have access to vaccines for their workers,
Speaker 1: how they will receive those vaccines. A lot of companies
Speaker 1: are still waiting to see sort of how these pieces
Speaker 1: all come together to figure out how they fit in.
Speaker 1: I mean, do these companies, whether or not they've announced
Speaker 1: any formal plan of distributing or making these vaccines available.
Speaker 1: Have these companies announced any timeline as far as when
Speaker 1: they expect to receive doses of these vaccines or even
Speaker 1: to make these plans in effect or essentially roll out
Speaker 1: these plans um I assume in not really Actually the
Speaker 1: companies that do talk about their plans, they what they
Speaker 1: lack is UH clarity in terms of timing, And I
Speaker 1: think that's a reflection of the lack of clarity in
Speaker 1: terms of timing and availability that we're seeing from the
Speaker 1: federal level. As these vaccines continue to go through the
Speaker 1: FDA approval process, and as the FDA advisory committee that
Speaker 1: creates recommendations about which groups of society, which UH segments
Speaker 1: of the workforce, which portions of the population UH should
Speaker 1: receive priority for whichever vaccines become available. Keep in mind
Speaker 1: that right now, UH that advisory board has basically only
Speaker 1: set recommendations for the very very first UH distributions of vaccines,
Speaker 1: which they've said should go to healthcare workers at risk
Speaker 1: health care workers and UH folks in long term care
Speaker 1: facilities like nursing homes, where we saw some of the biggest,
Speaker 1: most deadly outbreaks early on in the pandemic. As more
Speaker 1: vaccines go through that process, UH, I think we'll have
Speaker 1: a better sense and I think companies will have a
Speaker 1: better sense of the timing of the distribution. Now in
Speaker 1: addition to timelines, and you already mentioned a little bit
Speaker 1: in terms of the actual equipment and logistics needed for
Speaker 1: storing and and even distributing these vaccines. I mean, Fiser's
Speaker 1: vaccine into itself requires quite low temperatures that a normal
Speaker 1: refrigerator cannot really accommodate. So I was wondering just if
Speaker 1: you might go into some of the specifics about the
Speaker 1: equipment that is needed to store this vaccine by a company,
Speaker 1: how they are acquiring the special equipment, which understandably is
Speaker 1: going to be quite in demand over the next coming months. Sure,
Speaker 1: I spoke to UH an executive at a smaller UH
Speaker 1: specialty freezer manufacturer in Cincinnati, Ohio. They're working around the
Speaker 1: clock to fulfill you know, skyrocketing demand for their specialty
Speaker 1: ultric cold freezers. That's the sort of the term of
Speaker 1: art for these types of specialty freezers that are needed
Speaker 1: to store the Fiser and Madurana vaccines. So he's seen
Speaker 1: you know demand you know, uh to go through the
Speaker 1: roof for these devices. Um, even from companies that that
Speaker 1: never needed these types of freezers before. Mom and pop pharmacies, Uh,
Speaker 1: small independent corner pharmacies that aren't part of the big
Speaker 1: chains like CBS, right or Walgreens are ordering these at
Speaker 1: a fairly rapid clip because you know, they anticipate being
Speaker 1: part of the distribution process as well at some point. Uh.
Speaker 1: Most of the demand that he's seen is coming from
Speaker 1: hospital systems obviously, labs, um, you know, big pharmacy chains, etcetera.
Speaker 1: Are some companies or industries in particular trying to say,
Speaker 1: move to the front of the line, maybe get the
Speaker 1: vaccine sooner than others. And I'm wondering if this is
Speaker 1: particularly the case for industries that have been hard hit
Speaker 1: by the pandemic. Um. We haven't talked about it yet,
Speaker 1: but let's say the airlines or even those in the
Speaker 1: food industry. Yeah, no, you hit on two of the
Speaker 1: primary groups that we've seen advocate for getting I don't
Speaker 1: want to say the front of the line, because pretty
Speaker 1: much everyone agrees that the front of the line is
Speaker 1: are are healthcare workers and long term care residents are
Speaker 1: the front of the line. UM. But we are seeing
Speaker 1: you know, some you know, some industries advocate to get
Speaker 1: their workers nearer to the front of the line. Uh,
Speaker 1: particularly those in the food industry. We've seen both lobbying organizations,
Speaker 1: trade associations, and unions all advocating to get for example,
Speaker 1: meat packing workers to get them priority status because they
Speaker 1: are front line essential workers. We've seen the same from airlines.
Speaker 1: The primary trade association for UH big airlines like Southwest
Speaker 1: Airlines and UH and and Delta for example. They've they've urged,
Speaker 1: you know, federal policymakers to you know, treat front line
Speaker 1: airline workers like flight attendants and pilots and gate agents
Speaker 1: and everything like that, uh, you know, as essential workers
Speaker 1: to get them priority for a vaccine. UM. A lot
Speaker 1: of the activity, as you point out, though, has come
Speaker 1: from the food sector. I mean there are keep in mind,
Speaker 1: UH meat packing plants in particular, where some of the
Speaker 1: hardest hit workers and and and workplaces. Early on in
Speaker 1: the pandemic, we saw you know, multiple shutdowns and big
Speaker 1: outbreaks at at major meat processing facilities that created the
Speaker 1: potential for food shortages. So yeah, organizations that represent workers
Speaker 1: in those groups and are are definitely advocating to get
Speaker 1: their workers, uh, you know, a priority status for vaccine
Speaker 1: distribution as soon as possible. So one angle to companies
Speaker 1: making a vaccine available to their employees might be that
Speaker 1: they will require employees to receive the vaccine. Have you
Speaker 1: heard about anything along those lines in terms of a
Speaker 1: requirement for employees to get vaccinated. So it's kind of
Speaker 1: a tricky situation. Um, so let's just take us to
Speaker 1: up back. So, you know, polling has shown that there's
Speaker 1: actually a pretty significant degree of apprehension or reluctance among
Speaker 1: Americans to actually, you know, get this vaccine once it's available.
Speaker 1: So if you couple that with you know, companies trying
Speaker 1: to you know, consider whether or not they need to
Speaker 1: make it a requirement of employment. If companies are going
Speaker 1: to mandate that their workers get a vaccine, I mean,
Speaker 1: you know, companies can't run the risk of losing a
Speaker 1: lot of their workers if that reluctance or apprehension sort
Speaker 1: of hardens into an outright refusal to receive the vaccine. Right, So, uh,
Speaker 1: companies buy and large that that that that we've spoken
Speaker 1: to anyway, and employer groups that we've spoken to have
Speaker 1: said that most employers are not going to make it mandatory,
Speaker 1: They're gonna make it voluntary, but strongly encourage their employees
Speaker 1: to get this vaccine. UM and some companies are going
Speaker 1: to sort of lead by example. UM Delta Airline CEO
Speaker 1: At Bastion said on NBC's Today Show that you know,
Speaker 1: he can't wait to get a vaccine, So you're hearing
Speaker 1: some messaging like that from the c suite at at
Speaker 1: lots of companies. The CEO of Sanderson Farms said that,
Speaker 1: you know, he plans to get vaccinated on video and
Speaker 1: then share that video with company employees to encourage them
Speaker 1: to do the same. And some of the experts that
Speaker 1: I've spoken to said that, you know, that's a really
Speaker 1: important part of what companies need to do in terms
Speaker 1: of educating and messaging and leading by example to make
Speaker 1: sure that you know that that folks actually do go
Speaker 1: ahead and get vaccinated. So Ryan, finally, you know, we've
Speaker 1: largely been talking about companies that are either national or
Speaker 1: even international that have the resources to either acquire and
Speaker 1: or distribute vaccines to their employees or even beyond. But
Speaker 1: does perhaps edge out smaller companies from from getting the
Speaker 1: vaccine as quickly or what have you heard about smaller
Speaker 1: companies in terms of potentially getting ready for the availability
Speaker 1: of a vaccine? Well, I mean it certainly could. I
Speaker 1: mean keep in mind a lot of the stuff we
Speaker 1: still have to see how it all plays out. But
Speaker 1: you know that being said, uh, it's it's it's a
Speaker 1: really big challenge for small businesses. I mean especially small
Speaker 1: small businesses like restaurants, independent bars, um, you know, just
Speaker 1: you know, with a few dozen employees or twenty employees.
Speaker 1: I mean, they don't have the kind of uh, you know,
Speaker 1: lobbying budgets that big companies do to go talk to
Speaker 1: the f d A and you know, send letters and
Speaker 1: and and do all of the advocacy that a lot
Speaker 1: of the big companies are doing right now, particularly in
Speaker 1: the food industry and the airline industry that we've mentioned earlier,
Speaker 1: to you know, advocate for their workers to get front
Speaker 1: of the line status. There are trade associations that are
Speaker 1: doing that in there are small business groups that are
Speaker 1: trying to represents it, uh, you know, these smaller employers
Speaker 1: to make sure that they're not overlooked and to make
Speaker 1: sure that the vaccine distribution plan is equitable. But yeah,
Speaker 1: it's a challenge. I mean, these smaller companies have had
Speaker 1: to deal with you know, potential you know, outbreaks among
Speaker 1: their workforce and you know, particularly the bar and restaurant industry.
Speaker 1: I mean, I'm sure this the situation is is the same,
Speaker 1: you know, nationally, but it's just a huge challenge for
Speaker 1: these business operators to you know, manage all of this
Speaker 1: with capacity restrictions and limited indoor dining and so adding
Speaker 1: on top of that this question about how they as
Speaker 1: employers can make a vaccine available to their workers. It's
Speaker 1: just it's it's tough. That was Ryan b and that's
Speaker 1: it for our show today. For coverage of the outbreak
Speaker 1: from one twenty bureaus around the world, visit Bloomberg dot
Speaker 1: com slash coronavirus and if you like the show, please
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Speaker 1: or Spotify. It's the best way to help more listeners
Speaker 1: find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily edition is produced
Speaker 1: by Tophor Foreheads Jordan Gaspore, Magnus Henriksson and me Laura Carlson.
Speaker 1: Today's main story was reported by Ryan Bean, original music
Speaker 1: by Leo Sedrin. Our editors are Rick Shine and Francesca Levi.
Speaker 1: Francesca Levi is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening.