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Dr Richard Bates traveled nearly 150 miles earlier this month to pick up a cooler carrying 130 doses of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine from MidMichigan Medical Center in Midland to their hospital in Alpena – a town of about 10,000 people on Thunder Bay in Lake Huron.
The journey takes almost three hours each way and Alpena is about 70 miles from the highway, much of the journey is on two-lane roads.
Bates is an OB-GYN physician and regional vice president of medical affairs for MidMichigan Health, which received a shipment of 2,925 doses of the vaccine on December 16.
It was only two days after an intensive care nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, New York became one of the first people in the United States to get the vaccine.
MidMichigan Health has also shipped doses to other facilities in its network, which serves 23 counties.
Bates is from Alpena and compared delivering the vaccine to his hometown to delivering a baby.
“Watching our staff get the vaccine has been an amazing experience, a bit like giving birth to a new baby and handing that baby over to parents, who have just spent months and sometimes years thinking and dreaming and putting their hopes up. in this baby, ”he told CNN’s Bianna. Golodryga. “To see our staff cry and take pictures of them receiving the vaccine and share it with their families – it was quite special.
The US government’s Operation Warp Speed promised 20 million doses of vaccine would be administered by January 1, but that effort is overdue.
Pfizer vaccine must be stored at ultra-cold temperatures, which creates a logistical challenge for small hospitals and facilities that do not have special freezers that can reach at least -75 degrees Fahrenheit. It can be packaged in dry ice for transport and stored in the refrigerator for up to 5 days.
Health officials in the United States have been preparing for months to distribute the vaccines and deliver them safely to remote communities.
MidMichigan Medical Center purchased two ultra-cold freezers before Pfizer’s vaccine was cleared by the FDA.
Another Moderna vaccine can be stored at minus -20 degrees Celsius and refrigerated for up to 30 days before it expires.
The vaccine offers a ray of hope for health workers, who are struggling to treat a record number of Covid-19 cases.
At least 340,956 people have died in the United States from Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University and health experts fear the spread could worsen due to increased travel and meetings of family during the holidays.
Alpena County has recorded 1,134 cases of Covid-19 and 25 deaths.
Bates said helping to administer the vaccine had been a powerful experience.
“The feelings in the room and the emotions were tangible, they were real and it was really something special to be a part of,” he said.
He has since made another delivery and has two more trips scheduled for next week.
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