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A Covid-19 vaccine can take months to reach millions of Americans. To put all these blows in the arms will be a monumental task. Shreveport, Louisiana is preparing now.
The city recently completed a trial, one in a dozen statewide. Health officials there hosted the community’s first-ever drive-thru influenza vaccine clinic in the huge parking lot at the Louisiana State Fairgrounds.
Drivers rolled down their windows and rolled up their sleeves as they got up in the tents for the biggest immunization event the regional health department has ever hosted. Cheerful and swift nurses injected them with vaccines. In about five minutes, people were on their way, exiting the parking lot past a row of food stalls selling corn dogs, toasted nuts, and lemonade.
Healthcare workers administer flu shots at the Louisiana State Fairgrounds in Shreveport earlier this month.
Photographer: Dylan Hollingsworth / Bloomberg
In the near future, this is just how officials are hoping the Covid-19 vaccine will be adopted. A poor state that has seen its fair share of hurricanes, floods and tornadoes, Louisiana is trying to stand out. The state health department decided early on to run testing clinics in each of its nine public health regions, using this winter’s flu vaccine as a practice to ultimately distribute millions of doses of the vaccine. Covid-19.
“Unlike testing, we have the luxury of having four to five months to plan,” said Frank Welch, a physician who is the director of immunization in Louisiana.
Still, the pressure is strong. The worst pandemic to have ravaged the country in a century is out of control, and hospitals across the country are filling up as winter approaches. Fortunately, the formulas from Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE as well as Moderna Inc. showed amazing effectiveness in the first test results, with initial shipments within a few weeks.
But even in the best-case scenario, with timely vaccine approval, state governments will struggle to bring the raging virus under control. And they must do so in the midst of a chaotic transfer of presidential power and a lack of clear political guidance. Making it more difficult is the lack of confidence many Americans have in a vaccine’s safety. Only about half of adults say they would receive a Covid-19 vaccine if one were available, according to a September survey from the Pew Research Center.
Louisiana has an ambitious plan to vaccinate its nearly 5 million people. The first doses will probably be limited to a few health workers. Louisiana has a high number of infections and deaths as a percentage of its population. About 212,000 people have fallen ill with the new coronavirus and more than 6,200 have died.
Shreveport leans towards Democrat, as Caddo Parish voted for Joe Biden in the presidential election. Mayor Adrian Perkins calls it the most conservative Democratic parish in the entire state. Wearing a mask and social distancing have been a hard sell. Now, like everywhere in the United States, the novel coronavirus has turned lives and routines upside down.
The State Fairgrounds are located just off Interstate 49, which runs along the west side of the city, a predominantly black area. Nationally, black Americans have suffered disproportionately. Cases of the new coronavirus are 2.6 times higher among black Americans than among whites, and deaths are 2.1 times higher, according to the CDC.
Shreveport Mayor Adrian Perkins, left, at the Driving Flu Clinic at Louisiana State Fairgrounds.
Photographer: Dylan Hollingsworth / Bloomberg
Like most southern towns, Perkins said, Shreveport is split into two distinct sections, and the interstate is the proverbial “lanes” between them. Signs of economic hardship are apparent all over the west. Paint is peeling off some houses, while others are barricaded and crumbling into ruins.
The most prosperous city center is also in difficulty. Shreveport’s economy, like that of so many communities in the United States, is built on fighting the virus. The streets of downtown are quiet these days. The workers are at home. The theaters remain closed. Signs in restaurants and open cafes require people to wear masks.
Casinos, major employers in the region, are trying to survive. We have already closed for good. In Sam’s Town, plexiglass separates slot machines, many of which are turned off for social distancing. Next up, Eldorado is ending table games early so employees can clean up the poker chips at the end of the night. Customers wear masks except to sip their drinks and take bites of their cigarettes. Restaurants go through similar contortions to stay open and hold on to customers.
Healthcare workers wait for patients at the Louisiana State Fairgrounds in Shreveport.
Photographer: Dylan Hollingsworth / Bloomberg
The Fairgrounds influenza vaccination clinic helps show what the state is facing. Cars are coming more slowly than Regional Director of Public Health Martha Whyte would like. The day started with a supply of 1,500 vaccines, but only 400 people showed up for the flu shot. Whyte, who is a doctor, still considers this day a success. “I just wish we had more people,” she said.
Perhaps, she surmised, most people had already received their flu shots: It’s November and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has encouraged people to get the flu shot before. at the end of October.
Ensuring that vaccines are distributed fairly is a priority of the state’s Covid-19 vaccination campaign. Perkins and Whyte agree that the fairground provides a good place to reach the most vulnerable residents, although many won’t be able to drive there on their own. The fairgrounds run alongside a bus line, which could easily allow for photography on foot.
Martha Whyte organizes flu clinic workers at the wheel.
Photographer: Dylan Hollingsworth / Bloomberg
More aggressive outreach is also on the drawing board: deploying groups of health workers to homeless shelters, food banks, prisons or other places. The state began using such “strike teams” two years ago to vaccinate those at risk for hepatitis A outbreaks. It now uses them for flu shots. Strike teams could also visit the homes of people unable to visit doctors’ offices, pharmacies and other medical facilities, Welch said.
Clinics and strike teams will only work if people agree to be vaccinated. Whyte, the regional health director, fears that too few people are taking the pandemic seriously. She uses her personal experience to educate skeptics: Her husband spent two months on a ventilator, almost dying before receiving convalescent plasma from the region’s first coronavirus patient. Despite this, she was brutally attacked on social media and once compared to Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union.
“People aren’t happy with the restrictions, and they’re not happy with having to self-isolate or quarantine, so sometimes you have to tell people things they don’t want to hear,” Whyte said. “All I can do is tell them what this virus is, what it’s going to do and what they need to do in response.”
At the drive-through clinic, cars were few and far between throughout the day, giving the health department nurses time to sit on lawn chairs and chat, some holding umbrellas for protection. an unusually hot sun.
Nurse Dawn Leone’s family had gathered on Sunday to worship together when someone brought home the virus. Her husband, mother and father were all in hospital with Covid-19. A total of nine parents, including Leone, tested positive. Her mother and husband have recovered. His father is dead.
“Maybe this is old news and we’re on to other stuff,” Leone said, “but it’s a real struggle for families.”
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