Hospitals are preparing for a vaccine rollout

Hello,

Today in healthcare news: An inside look at how hospitals are preparing to vaccinate and prioritize the first round of vaccines, meet the little-known startup that’s helping the UK with its vaccine rollout, and pregnant people will have to wait for a COVID-19 shot. 

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‘This is game time’: Hospitals across the country are gearing up to give the first COVID-19 shots to millions of healthcare workers

• Four healthcare systems – Intermountain Healthcare in Utah, Northwell Health in New York, McLaren Health Care in Michigan, and Yale New Haven Health in Connecticut – shared their plans for vaccinating staff. 
• After the FDA greenlights the vaccines, states will allocate initial shipments to health systems. Many do not know how many doses they will receive yet.
• All four systems plan to give the limited doses to workers closest to COVID-19 patients. Their efforts will inform how they later vaccinate the general public.

Read the full story from Shelby Livingston and Allana Akhtar here>>

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Here’s how a little-known telehealth startup is poised to make a mark by helping the UK roll out the first coronavirus vaccine

• The UK is the first Western country to officially have a COVID-19 vaccine, after approving Pfizer’s shot on Monday.
• The challenge of immunizing as many people as possible is a hurdle that countries worldwide will face when they approve COVID-19 vaccines.
• Qdoctor is a telehealth platform that could become the biggest booking service for Brits wanting to receive a COVID-19 shot.

Read the full story from Dr. Catherine Schuster-Bruce here>>

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Pregnant women will have to wait for a COVID-19 vaccine, despite being a high-risk group for complications

• Pregnant women, particularly racial and ethnic minorities, are at increased risk for serious COVID-19 complications and death.
• But they're not among prioritized populations for vaccine distribution because they've been excluded from clinical trials, which is typical of vaccine development.
• Until it's known which vaccine candidates are safe and effective for pregnant women and their babies, expectant moms, people trying to conceive, and those around them should take extra precautions to keep themselves safe. 

Read the full story from Anna Medaris Miller here>>

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More stories we're reading:

• How the rich and privileged could skip the line for a COVID-19 vaccine (Stat News)
• These are the states that have announced how many COVID-19 vaccine doses they will receive in the first round of distribution (Business Insider)
• The debate around whether prisoners should get vaccines early continues (The Marshall Project)
• Social media superspreaders: Why Instagram, not Facebook, will be the real battleground for COVID-19 vaccine misinformation (Business Insider)

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- Lydia