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The Washington State Department of Health is hosting a 2024-2025 Respiratory Virus Season: Vaccine Recommendations, Ordering and Distribution webinar at 12PM Tuesday, September 17.
Presenters will discuss influenza, COVID-19, and RSV epidemiology, vaccine recommendations, and vaccine ordering and distribution. Health care providers, health professionals, and anyone else interested in learning more about this topic are welcome to attend.
Register here
Learning Objectives:
- Discuss influenza, COVID-19, and RSV epidemiology, clinical overview, and vaccine recommendations.
- Describe influenza, COVID-19, nirsevimab, and RSV vaccine ordering and distribution.
- Identify available clinical resources.
Continuing Education & Other Webinar Details
Continuing education will be available for nurses, medical assistants, pharmacists and pharmacy techs. Please register individually if you would like to get CE credit.
The Department of Health will record the webinar for those who are unable to attend.
Find more details on our webinar web page. For other immunization training opportunities, bookmark our immunization training page.
Flu and COVID-19 vaccine and RSV products for the 2024-2025 season are available to order. It can take up to two weeks from the approval date to receive your shipment. Please remember to plan mass vaccination clinics later in September and early October when more flu vaccine is available.
Things to Remember:
- Childhood vaccine orders for respiratory products will be processed weekly initially and more frequently once we receive additional allocation.
- Monday - RSV product orders processed
- Tuesday - COVID-19 vaccine orders processed
- Thursday - Flu vaccine orders processed
- All respiratory products can be ordered at any time - you do not need to wait for your assigned ordering window to place an order for these products
- Place smaller orders more frequently, rather than large orders
- Orders may be reduced to meet allocation and product availability - the goal is to ensure all providers receive some product
- Providers are required to carry and offer all ACIP recommended vaccines for the population they serve.
- We expect all providers to have flu and COVID-19 vaccine available. (DOH-authorized specialty providers may not be required to carry flu and COVID vaccines)
- If small infants are served, nirsevimab is expected to be available.
Pfizer’s COVID vaccine for 6 months to 4 years population was entered into the WAIIS incorrectly.
The minimum order quantity was initially set at 10 doses due to it being listed as a 10-pack. However, the 10-pack is of a 3 dose multi dose vial (MDV). Therefore, the minimum order quantity should have been set at 30. Orders placed before 1:00 pm on Tuesday September 10th, will be altered or denied for this vaccine if orders aren’t in 30 dose increments.
Orders for this vaccine can be placed in 30 dose increments if your order was altered or denied.
We are sorry for the inconvenience this may cause.
The 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccines are no longer authorized and should NOT be administered even if they are not expired.
Administration of any 2023-2024 doses on or after August 23 after FDA authorization and approval of the 2024-2025 vaccines is considered a vaccine administration error.
Some of the questions we received from you include:
- Do we need to contact patients who received a dose on/after August 23rd about revaccination?
- What is the timing interval for administering the new formula to affected patients once we receive it?
We are actively communicating with the CDC on potential next steps to address these questions and will follow up when confirming guidance is received. For now, here are important steps all providers should take as we navigate the transition to the new formula.
To minimize risk of vaccine administration error, providers should:
- Remove all 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccines from storage units immediately, even if they are not expired.
- Once all inventory is fully accounted for, delete 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccine listings from the available vaccine inventory in your Immunization Information System (IIS), as applicable.
- Return all unused 2023-2024 COVID-19 vaccines to CDC's centralized distributor using the normal process for returning spoiled/expired vaccines.
- Providers must use the category "Spoiled" and the reason "Expired BUD" to reconcile and submit the return of these vaccines in the IIS. Please do not use the "Recall" category.
A Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) report is required for COVID-19 vaccines under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). VAERS reporting is strongly encouraged for licensed COVID-19 vaccines.
For licensed COVID-19 vaccines (Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech in people ages 12 years and older), healthcare providers are strongly encouraged to report the following to VAERS:
- Any adverse event that occurs after the administration of a vaccine licensed in the United States, whether or not it is clear that a vaccine caused the adverse event.
- Vaccine administration errors, whether or not associated with an adverse event.
For COVID-19 vaccines given under EUA, vaccination providers are required to report the following to VAERS:
- Vaccine administration errors, whether or not associated with an adverse event.
- Serious adverse events regardless of causality. Serious adverse events per the FDA are defined as:
- Death.
- A life-threatening adverse event.
- Inpatient hospitalization or prolongation of existing hospitalization.
- A persistent or significant incapacity or substantial disruption of the ability to conduct normal life functions.
- A congenital anomaly/birth defect.
- An important medical even that based on appropriate medical judgement may jeopardize the individual and may require medical or surgical intervention to prevent one of the outcomes listed above.
- Cases of Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome (MIS) in children and adults.
- Cases of myocarditis.
- Cases of pericarditis.
- Cases of COVID-19 that result in hospitalization or death.
Reporting is also encouraged for any other clinically significant adverse event, even if it is uncertain whether the vaccine caused the event. Information on how to submit a report to VAERS is available at https://vaers.hhs.gov or by calling 1-900-822-7967. Please refer to additional details in the CDC's Clinical Guidance for COVID-19 Vaccination web page.
Providers are welcome to use the communication materials linked below to promote the flu vaccine. These materials explain the importance of getting vaccinated, who is most at risk, and how to find a vaccine. Check back for updated materials throughout the season!
Flu Free Washington Partner Toolkit
CDC Flu Resource Center - Digital Media Toolkit
Join CDC, Department of Education, National Association of School Nurses, and Alliance for a Healthier Generation on September 25th from 3:00-4:30pm ET for a webinar titled "Vaccinations for School-Age Children: Opportunities for Health Promotion, Collaboration, and Family Engagement!"
This webinar will provider school and healthcare attendees with training on the latest Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) vaccination recommendations for K-12 students and evidence-based strategies and promising practices for strengthening childhood vaccination coverage.
Register here to receive the calendar invite for this webinar. The training will also be recorded and available on CDC TRAIN for one year. Continuing education credits (CNE, CEU, CPH, CHES) for this activity are pending.
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