To Our Patients,
We still don’t have vaccine, and don’t know when (or if) we will have vaccine to administer at the office any time soon. It looks like it’s going to be provided to large institutions like hospitals and pharmacies first. Hospitals in San Antonio are currently only administering the vaccine to hospital staff. Currently for the public it’s being offered primarily by local pharmacies, who are also administering it to medical staff. Until Dec. 29, vaccine providers were only authorized to distribute the vaccine to “Tier 1a” groups (basically medical providers/hospital staff/nursing home or assisted living residents and staff), now as of Dec. 29, in Texas it’s been opened up to “Tier 1b” (basically, those over 65 or with certain medical conditions). Despite that, we believe most vaccine providers will still be following the protocol of vaccinating Tier 1a individuals first, then when that group is completed, move on to Tier b. Since the vaccine comes in multi-dose vials, there’s the possibility that some doses will remain after a vial has been opened and need to be administered that day or be wasted, so HEB has wait list for individuals in Tier 1b for those doses. It’s going to be a bit of a free-for-all, I believe, since each institution can follow its own protocols.
Here is some current information, and a link where you can find vaccine providers in the area. Unfortunately, I believe for now it’s going to boil down to calling each pharmacy to see if you can get an appointment.
https://www.dshs.texas.gov/coronavirus/immunize/vaccine.aspx
https://txdshs.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=91ac7fb5e5fd47e7ada4acfe4a05920a
https://newsroom.heb.com/covid-19-vaccine/
Dr. Thornton is posting frequently on his blog at our website about this. The posts on 12/27 and 12/28 give some useful up-to-date information:
http://www.personalphysicianmd.com/covid-19/
Hope this helps.
Jennifer Wallace, M.D.
Mark Thornton, M.D.,F.A.C.P.
