Tens of thousands of health care workers in cities and states across the country received the first doses of the new Pavizer coronavirus vaccine last week – a memorial campaign both scientifically and logically – and over seven million doses of the Pfizer and newly authorized The Moderna vaccine will be released this coming week.
There have been some setbacks to the process, as states learned that their satisfaction was not expected to be less than expected. But the arrival of the first loads was still a great relief for those who have been caring for COVID-19 patients since the early days of the pandemic.
“A lot of us are tired, and it’s exciting to be able to have it,” said Rebecca Engberg, ICU nurse at Seattle Children’s Hospital. “Hopefully this is the first step in trying. to get things back to normal. ”
Engberg was among the health care workers who were shot at the hospital’s vaccination clinic last week. She cares for COVID-19 patients and shares as many other health care workers.
“Working with these patients is intimidating, so anything that gives you a little bit of protection will make you feel better,” she says.
Engberg looked at the data around the Pfizer vaccine and had no real excuse for getting the vaccine.
Evan Mew, a respiratory therapist at Seattle Children, was more relaxed about getting the picture.
“I was a little worried about how quickly this went through. I had never trusted this government at all this year,” Mew said.
But Mew eventually decided that the benefits outweighed the risks and got the vaccine right ahead of Engberg.
“I just want to get over this virus. I want this to go away, “he says.
On Sunday, federal officials said a second Moderna vaccine is starting to be released.
The first phase of the vaccine rollout is aimed at health care workers and others at high risk, although the actual plans vary from state to state. It is largely a dry run for the complex logistics that go into distributing millions of doses across the country to the masses.
“Perhaps the biggest challenge is planning when you don’t have information and details,” says Dr. Danielle Zerr with Seattle Children’s Hospital.
Zerr says they could vaccinate two or three times as many people, but the vaccine is not coming as fast as some states would like.
“We have the freezer space, we have the staff, we have a place in the clinic and we have the will to do it,” Zerr said.
At the end of this week, Washington and other states found that they are receiving about 40% fewer doses than originally expected.
At first it was not clear why.
On Saturday, U.S. Army General Gustave Perna, chief operating officer of Operation Warp Speed, explained that states were in disarray with how many would be ready, with no indication of broader access issues.
“There is no problem with the process. There is no problem with the Pfizer vaccine,” Perna said. “It was a design error and I’m concerned.”
Perna said the U.S. is still on track to issue 20 million doses by the end of the month.
After initially raising concerns about the reduction in doses, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee said he was confident after talking to Perna.
“At this time, there is no indication that further reductions could occur,” Inslee added tweet on Friday. “That’s good news.”
But some local health officials said the upheaval was due to a lack of investment and overall planning by the federal government in the rollout of the vaccine.
“It’s no surprise to me,” Dr. Jeff Duchin told Public Health – Seattle King County on Friday. “I am disappointed that it has happened so quickly that we are already seeing challenges to satisfaction. ”
With vaccine doses still in short supply, some hospitals also had a push back that was prioritized for the first doses last week.
In California, Stanford medical residents complained after only a few received the picture, while non – bedside workers worked with COVID-19 patients.
On Friday, Stanford Medicine apologized to more than 1,000 residents and said it was “working quickly to address the deficiencies.”
At her hospital in Washington, Nurse Ashley Bower said there was a glitch where she and some health care workers working in the ICU did not receive a vaccination invitation, even as staff received scene management.
“They don’t even come to COVID platforms and get vaccinated in front of the frontline workers who are doing the work,” Bower said. “No one was aware of it. We completely forgot about it. “
Eventually, she and her colleagues were able to get a record for the first look.
“I’ve heard this from other nurses across the country that this is happening to them,” she said.
And while the vaccine is a great comfort, Seattle nurse Karine Ingraham said it will not change the grim nature of her work with COVID-19 patients.
“It’s just a deceptive world of standards,” she says. “I listen to people say goodbye to their loved ones through Facetime. I’ve been doing that for a year and I still cry every time, but also sometimes I see people leaving the ICU. “
