NEW YORK (Reuters) – The United States, which is facing a delay in administering coronavirus vaccines, is urging medical students and nurses, and even firefighters, to help shoot and release health workers battling a raging pandemic in the United States. overcrowded hospitals.
At least seven state health departments are looking for volunteers for their vaccination sites, some partnering with local universities or nursing schools to provide incentives, such as discounts on schooling and practical training. Others teach responders to manage photos.
The national launch of COVID-19 vaccines is the best hope to end a pandemic that has claimed the lives of more than 320,000 Americans and damaged the US economy.
This month, US regulators authorized the first two COVID-19 vaccines, one from drugmakers Pfizer Inc. and BioNTech SE and another from Moderna Inc.
As of Wednesday, nearly 10 million doses have been administered across the country, but only about 1 million have been administered due to a lack of hospital staff and special requirements for vaccine preparation. The slow pace of the vaccination campaign threatens the federal government’s goal of inoculating nearly 20 million people by the end of the year.
While inoculation is currently focused on front-line health workers, vaccination is expected to extend to tens of millions of key workers in the industry as of January or February.
From New York to Tennessee, states hope that medical students and nurses will release medical staff focused on caring for the record number of new patients with COVID-19.
“Being able to hire vaccination clinics with volunteers from our reserve workforce means that vaccination staff can continue to perform their normal tasks, which is crucial as the hospitalization rate has increased,” said one spokeswoman for Indiana University School of Medicine.
“STRIKE BACK AGAINST COVID”
With the arrival of the first vaccines, Indiana health officials turned to state university because of its large campuses. More than 630 Indiana University medical and nursing students enroll as volunteers and receive 90 minutes of online and hands-on training.
On Wednesday, last year, medical student Nicholas Clough began administering COVID-19 vaccines to front-line medical staff. He lost several family members during the pandemic.
“Finally, I felt it was a real, tangible blow against COVID,” said Clough, 26.
The University of Wisconsin provides a $ 500 tuition loan to students with medical credentials who work in understaffed hospitals during winter breaks, including vaccine administration.
The university is also talking to government officials to turn universities into vaccine distribution centers, a spokesman said.
In California, firefighters were trained to administer the vaccine, initially to co-workers.
“They have already received online training and will have another hour of live training,” said Peter Sanders, a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department, which was awaiting the first delivery of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday.
Michigan has set up a volunteer registry (here www.mivolunteerregistry.org), allowing officials and hospitals to recruit help for future vaccination clinics.
“We encourage all medical and healthcare students to register now so that they are prepared when their care is needed!” said a spokeswoman for the health department.
Other states do not actively recruit nursing students. A spokeswoman for the Georgia Department of Health said the state could do so later as the vaccine becomes more widely available to the public.
Under state licensing laws, medical students and nurses are allowed to administer vaccines, often under the supervision of a fully licensed professional.
In the face of a shortage of vaccinators, the Association of Immunization Managers, a non-profit organization representing local state and health officials, recommends relaxing regulations or adjusting licensing requirements.
At least two states, Massachusetts and New York, have changed their laws in recent weeks to extend those who are eligible to fire.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo on December 13 allowed medical students, nurses, pharmacy, dentistry, podiatry and midwives to administer flu vaccines and COVID-19 under supervision.
Reporting by Tina Bellon and Melissa Fares in New York; Additional reporting by Deena Beasley in Los Angeles; Editing by Michele Gershberg and Aurora Ellis