Inside the chaotic first days of the effort to vaccinate America nbcnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nbcnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The St Kitts Nevis Observer
Rachana Pradhan and Lauren Weber and Jay Hancock, Kaiser Health News
December 22, 2020–One tray of COVID-19 vaccine from pharmaceutical giant Pfizer contains 975 doses way too many for a rural hospital in Arkansas.
But with the logistical gymnastics required to safely get the Pfizer vaccine to rural health care workers, splitting the trays into smaller shipments has its own dangers. Once out of the freezer that keeps it at 94 degrees below zero, the vaccine lasts only five days and must be refrigerated in transit.
In Arkansas where over 40% of its counties are rural and COVID infections are climbing solving this distribution puzzle is urgently critical, said Dr. Jennifer Dillaha, the state’s epidemiologist.
Dec. 19, 2020 10:00 am ET
Five days after Covid-19 vaccines started rolling out across the U.S., rural hospital executives like Cory Edmondson are still waiting, and hoping, that they will receive some doses soon.
“How do you tell your staff, your nurses, your doctors, ‘Hey, we’re not going to get the vaccine [yet]?’” said Mr. Edmondson, chief executive of Peterson Health in Kerrville, a town of about 24,000 in the Texas Hill Country. “They’re going to feel like ‘Whoa, we’re not as important or valuable, just because we’re in rural Texas.’”
The push to swiftly immunize most of the American population against the coronavirus is already one of the most ambitious public-health efforts the nation has ever undertaken. Reaching rural communities and small towns that are grappling with some of the highest infection rates and often have weaker health-care infrastructure is among the most formidable challenges, according to health experts.
Record numbers of covid-19 patients push hospitals and staffs to the limit
Brittany Shammas, Ariana Eunjung Cha, Ben Guarino and Jacqueline Dupree, The Washington Post
Dec. 16, 2020
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In Boston, pediatric wards are being consolidated to fit all the adults battling covid-19. Philadelphia hospitals are once again barring family visitors due to transmission worries. And in Los Angeles, a public hospital canceled elective and scheduled surgeries because it cannot spare ICU beds.
Exponentially rising hospitalizations in these and other states are pushing some hospital systems to near breaking points, with many scrambling to reconfigure themselves to handle a crush of patients streaming in after holiday gatherings and the arrival of flu season.
Many hospitals are overwhelmed with record covid cases washingtonpost.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from washingtonpost.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.