Austin, Texas, Jan. 29, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- About 1.7 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine will need to be administered for Travis County to reach a herd immunity level of 67 percent, according to research released by Sendero Health Plans.
The study “Using Health Insurance Network Provider Data and Public Data Sets to Identify SARS-CoV-2 Vaccinators in the USA” published in “Frontiers in Public Health’’ – suggests Travis County has far to go to reach the 67 percent immunity threshold, which is the level identified by scientists to disrupt person-to-person transmission of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19. So far, 150,550 doses have been allocated to Travis County since the vaccine became available, according to the Texas Department of State Health Services website.
“The goal of this recent research is to assist public health officials by quantifying the number of doses of vaccine to be administered in our community to reach herd immunity, which will enable our community to get back to normal,” said Dr. John Litaker, PhD, the study’s principal author. “We estimate that to administer 1.7 million doses over the course of 26 weeks, 65,000 doses will need to be administered weekly. Based on current provider capacity – for both clinicians and pharmacies – we estimate upwards of 50 percent of these doses will need to be provided at mass vaccination sites.”
The study also cited vaccine data from the 2009-2010 H1N1 pandemic and compared that pandemic with the COVID-19 pandemic. For example, H1N1 vaccine coverage only reached 31.8 percent in Travis County during H1N1. To reach herd immunity in Travis County, 67 percent coverage is needed – more than two times over what was achieved ten years ago. Moreover, when compared to the H1N1 vaccination effort, 1 million more doses of the COVID-19 vaccine will need to be administered.
“The study suggests we need an all-hands-on-deck approach by the medical community and pharmacies to vaccinate our Central Texas community quickly and effectively to battle COVID-19,’’ said Wesley Durkalski, CEO of Sendero Health Plans. “As a nonprofit community-based
health plan, Sendero is committed to supporting health initiatives and research that benefit our
members and the Central Texas community we serve. By supporting research that establishes a goal for the COVID-19 vaccine effort in the coming weeks and months, we are hopeful we can assist public health officials in Austin and Travis County in their planning and execution.”
The full study is available at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2020.616140/full
About the lead authors:
John Litaker, PhD, MSc., MMedSc is a public health expert and research scientist with degrees in pharmacoeconomics, public health, and medical science from the University of Texas at Austin, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and the University of Hong Kong, respectively. He has spent 20 years working as a scientist and public health expert in public health emergency preparedness and the last five years applying his skills as a scientist and researcher in the health insurance industry.
Richard Taylor, PhD, MPH is an infectious disease epidemiologist who previously worked at the CDC as an epidemic intelligence service officer and career epidemiology field officer. He worked at DSHS as the manager of strategic preparedness and currently is a clinical assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin where he teaches epidemiology and other public health courses.
Sendero Health Plans Inc., formed in 2011, is a community-supported nonprofit Health Maintenance Organization affiliated with the Travis County Health District, known as Central Health. Sendero is dedicated to improving the health of the community by providing affordable, quality healthcare coverage, especially for Travis County residents with low income. Sendero offers its IdealCare plans on the Federal Health Insurance Marketplace and is available in Travis, Williamson, Hays, Bastrop, Burnet, Fayette, Lee and Caldwell counties.
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