Dr. Richard Bates drove nearly 150 kilometers earlier this month to take a 130-dose Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine cooler from MidMichigan Medical Center in Midland to their hospital in Alpena – a city of about 10,000 people on the Thunder Bay in Huron -more.
The journey takes almost three hours each way, and Alpena is about 70 kilometers from the highway, so much of the ride is on two-lane roads.
Bates is an OB-GYN physician and local vice president of medical affairs at MidMichigan Health, who received a shipment of 2,925 doses of the vaccine on Dec. 16.
It was just two days after an ICU nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens, New York City, became one of the first people in the United States to receive the vaccination.
MidMichigan Health has also sent doses to other facilities in its system, serving 23 counties.
Assets come from Alpena and compare the delivery of the vaccine in his hometown to the delivery of a baby.
“Seeing our staff receive the vaccine was an incredible experience, like delivering a new baby and handing that baby over to parents who have been thinking and dreaming about it for months and sometimes years and their hopes for that baby, “he told CNN’s Bianna Golodryga. “Seeing our staff in tears and taking pictures of how they get the vaccine and sharing it with their families – it was quite special.”
The US government’s Operation Warp Speed has promised that by January 1, 20 million doses of vaccine would be administered, but the effort is behind the plan.
The Pfizer vaccine must be kept at cold temperatures, which creates a logistical challenge for smaller hospitals and facilities that do not have special freezers that can reach at least minus 75 degrees Celsius. It can be packed in dry ice for transport and can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Health officials across the U.S. 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 the FDA approved the Pfizer vaccine.
Another vaccine by Moderna can be stored at minus 20 degrees Celsius and kept in the refrigerator for up to 30 days before expiring.
The vaccine offers some hope for health professionals, who are struggling to care for record numbers of Covid-19 cases.
According to Johns Hopkins University, at least 340,956 people were killed in Covid-19 in the United States and health experts fear the spread will worsen as a result of the larger travel and family gatherings during the holidays.
Alpena County had 1,134 reported Covid-19 cases and 25 deaths.
Bates said it was a powerful experience to help deliver the vaccine.
“The feelings in the room and the emotions were palpable, it was real and it was really something special to be a part of,” he said.
He has since made another delivery and next week there are two more trips.
