But, shouldn’t the same scrutiny around pricing that has been given to the innovative drug companies also be applied to the healthcare systems giving the shots?
On Valentine’s Day, I was fortunate to get my first Covid-19 vaccine shot – Pfizer, of course. I was vaccinated at the Floyd Little Fieldhouse in New Haven which was set up by Yale New Haven Health. It was an excellent experience. The staff and volunteers were polite, helpful and well organized. The entire process took less than 30 minutes and that included the obligatory 15 minute wait after the vaccination to be sure that there were no immediate adverse effects. When I went back 3 weeks later, the process was just as efficient. Given a capacity of 1,400 people a day, Yale New Haven Health did a terrific job pulling this off. These vaccines are free to all patients, thanks to funding by the U.S. government which negotiated contracts with the Covid-19 vaccine makers that will supply enough vaccines to cover our entire population. Of course, these contracts came at a cost to the government, from $39 for Pfizer’s two dose regimen, $32 for Moderna’s regimen, and $10 for J&J’s single shot. For perspective, the price of one’s annual quadrivalent flu shot ranges from $35 – $41, with the more potent shot being almost twice as high.
