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PALO ALTO – More than 100 resident physicians and Stanford Health Care fellows protested against administrators’ deployment plans for the first wave of COVID-19 vaccines on Friday, saying they were mostly left out despite their regular contact with infected patients – sometimes in favor of high-ranking professors at much lower risk.
Supported by tumultuous chants like “First in the room, behind the line,” the morning protest in the halls of the prestigious university hospital drew a swift response from hospital officials, including the Stanford Health Care CEO David Entwhistle, who told the assembled crowd: “We’re going to fix it. We know this is wrong.
The seeds for the protest were planted earlier this week after Stanford announced how it would distribute its initial vaccine allocation – more than 5,000 doses.
Residents quickly realized – and wrote in a letter to administrators – that only seven of the 1,349 medical residents and fellows, “including those on the frontlines directly treating COVID-19 patients,” were online for the first time. wave. They fell in the pecking order even below the faculty working from home “without in-person patient responsibilities, who were selected for vaccination,” the letter said.
A follow-up statement Friday from Stanford Health Care offered further contrition.
“We take full responsibility for errors in the execution of our vaccine distribution plan. Our intention was to develop an ethical and fair process for the distribution of the vaccine, ”the statement read. “We apologize to our entire community, including our residents, scholars and other frontline care providers, who acted heroically during our response to the pandemic. We are immediately revising our plan to better sequence vaccine distribution. “
Friday was the first day these vaccines were to be administered. After the announcement of his initial vaccine, Dr Niraj Sehgal, chief medical officer at Stanford Health Care, said: “We are planning and preparing to be able to vaccinate everyone – hopefully by the end of January. . “
The way in which these would be administered, he said, will be based on a process of “sequencing” anchored in four principles: preserving the health of its central health workforce, protecting the most vulnerable, ensuring equity and ensure transparency. The duties of the post would be weighted, along with risk factors such as age, with department heads helping to form the final list of beneficiaries.
That didn’t work out with medical residents and fellows, who, as Friday’s protest approached, took to social media to express dismay at the initial rollout strategy. In response to a Stanford press release on the plan, Earth Hasassri, a researcher in child and adolescent psychiatry, tweeted Friday morning: “Except you’ve forgotten those of us on the front lines: residents and fellows. were essentially not included in the first round of vaccines despite working more than 80 hours per week in the hospital to treat patients with COVID-19. “
Christine Santiago, internal medicine researcher, added: “The disparities in vaccine distribution can be seen at a micro level at Stanford today. I’m concerned that the situation we see at (Stanford) is a harbinger of population inequalities in vaccine distribution for our underserved communities.
– Chronicle of San Francisco (@sfchronicle) December 18, 2020
Inside the hospital, a resident doctor participating in the protest made it clear he was speaking for more than themselves.
“It’s not just about residents. We are here to represent our nurses, ”he said in a video published by the San Francisco Chronicle, before noting that only two nurses in the pediatric emergency department have received vaccines. “We are here to support them. Our respiratory therapists, our environmental services workers, our food staff, everyone.
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