NEW YORK (Reuters) – US states, struggling with a backlog in the delivery of coronavirus vaccines, are asking medical and nursing students, and even firefighters, to help deliver the shots and free health workers fighting against a raging pandemic in overcrowded hospitals.
At least seven state health departments are seeking volunteers for their vaccination sites, some working with local universities or nursing schools to offer incentives such as tuition discounts and hands-on training. Others teach first responders to administer shots.
The national rollout of COVID-19 vaccines is the best hope of ending a pandemic that killed more than 320,000 Americans and paralyzed the US economy.
This month, US regulators approved the first two COVID-19 vaccines, one from drug manufacturers Pfizer Inc and BioNTech SE and one from Moderna Inc.
As of Wednesday, nearly 10 million doses have been delivered nationwide, but only about 1 million administered due to staff shortages at hospitals and the special requirements for preparing the injections. The slow pace of the vaccination campaign threatens the federal government’s goal of vaccinating nearly 20 million people by the end of the year.
While the vaccination is currently targeting primary health workers, vaccination coverage is expected to expand to tens of millions of key industry workers from January or February.
From New York to Tennessee, states hope that medical and nursing students will be able to free up medical personnel dedicated to caring for the record number of new COVID-19 patients.
“The ability to staff vaccination clinics with volunteers from our reserve staff means that vaccination center staff can continue to perform their normal duties, which is critical as our hospitalization rate has increased,” said an Indiana University School of Medicine spokeswoman.
‘BATTLE BACK AGAINST COVID’
When the first vaccines arrived, health officials in Indiana turned to the state university for its far-reaching campuses. More than 630 of Indiana University’s medical and nursing students have volunteered and receive 90 minutes of online and hands-on training.
Fourth-year medical student Nicholas Clough began administering COVID-19 vaccines to primary care health workers last Wednesday. He lost several family members during the pandemic.
“It finally felt like it was a real, tangible attack against COVID,” said Clough, 26.
The University of Wisconsin is offering a $ 500 tuition credit to students with medical qualifications who work in understaffed hospitals during the winter break, including the administration of vaccines.
The university is also in talks with government officials to turn universities into vaccine distribution centers, a spokesman said.
In California, fire department paramedics are trained to administer the vaccine, initially to colleagues.
“They have already received online training and will have another one-hour live training session,” said Peter Sanders, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Fire Department who expected the first delivery of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine on Wednesday.
Michigan has set up a volunteer registry (here www.mivolunteerregistry.org), which allows officials and hospitals to enlist help for future vaccine clinics.
“We encourage all medical and nursing students to enroll now so they are ready when their help is needed!” a health department spokeswoman said.
Other states do not actively recruit nursing students. A spokeswoman for the Georgian health department said the state could do this later as the vaccine becomes more widely available to the public.
Subject to state licensure laws, medical and nursing students may administer vaccines, often under the supervision of a fully licensed professional.
Faced with a shortage of vaccinators, the Association of Immunization Managers, a nonprofit that represents state and local 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 expand those eligible to give recordings.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo allowed medical, nursing, pharmacy, dentistry, podiatry, and obstetric students to administer supervised flu and COVID-19 injections on December 13.
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