Modification to Contract 75D301-20-C-07986

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention intends to award a sole source cost reimbursible modification to Westat. Westat was awarded (5/3/2020) a contract (75D30120C07986; “Virtual Network COVID-19”) to establish a virtual network of health care systems to assess the incidence of severe COVID-19 using integrated medical and laboratory records. For this purpose, an existing virtual network designed to assess influenza vaccine effectiveness was adapted for the COVID-19 pandemic response, and included health care systems in Oregon, California, Minnesota, and Colorado. The contractor has finalized a protocol and procedures, gained Intuitional Review Board approvals, and completed data extraction, integration, and reporting across study sites.

CDC requires that this virtual network expand information gathering to include vaccine records and to adapt protocols and procedures in order to assess effectiveness of licensed COVID-19 vaccines once they become available. CDC also requires that the source population for these electronic cohorts be expanded from 2.5 million to 3.5 million members through expanded coverage within existing and new health care sites; this is required in order to assess vaccine effectiveness by different vaccine products and target populations. CDC also requires the period of performance to be extended to 9/2022 in order to conduct evaluations during the expected roll-out of COVID-19 vaccine products in the US and to evaluate the preventive benefits of vaccination over at least one year. CDC requires an additional modification so that Westat can engage additional hospitals to contribute more hospitalization events in order to evaluable COVID-19 vaccine effectiveness (VE) in preventing lab-confirmed COVID-19 admissions and provide CDC with interim estimates of VE within 8 weeks of 2-dose vaccine coverage reaching >5% of the target population.

Because Westat has completed all of the implementation tasks described above, they are the only contractor able to complete this work and to add a larger source population and to add information relevant to vaccine evaluations which can be integrated with the existing and established data protocols. It is essential that this information be added to these existing cohorts rather than by initiating new studies in order for data to be comparable and collapsible.

This contract action is for supplies or services for which the Government intends to solicit and negotiate with only one source under the authority of FAR 6.302-1 and 41 U.S.C. 3304(a)(1). Interested persons may identify their interest and capability to respond to the requirement or submit proposals.

This notice of intent is not a request for competitive quotations; however, all quotations/responses received within fifteen (15) days of the issuance of this notice will be considered by the government. A determination by the government not to compete this proposed contract based upon responses to this notice is solely within the discretion of the government. Information received will normally be considered solely for the purpose of determining whether to conduct a competitive procurement. Any quotation/response should be emailed to William Brannen at VWL0@cdc.gov by 9:00 A.M. EST., January 25, 2021.