WEBVTT - Some Health Workers Can't Get a Vaccine 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:08.959 Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day three d 0:00:09.119 --> 0:00:12.920 and twenty four since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. 0:00:13.720 --> 0:00:18.079 Today's main story. Healthcare workers were among the first priority 0:00:18.280 --> 0:00:23.040 for vaccinations in the US, but thousands of doctors, nurses, 0:00:23.079 --> 0:00:26.800 and other health professionals say that if they're not affiliated 0:00:26.840 --> 0:00:31.840 with major hospitals, they're likely to miss out. But first, 0:00:32.600 --> 0:00:47.840 here's what happened in virus News Today. New York City 0:00:47.960 --> 0:00:51.680 broke down its COVID nineteen vaccination data by ethnicity for 0:00:51.760 --> 0:00:57.320 the first time that revealed profound racial disparities in who's 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:01.720 getting the shots. White residents made up almost half of 0:01:01.760 --> 0:01:05.520 the people who have received at least one dose, despite 0:01:05.560 --> 0:01:11.600 consisting of only a third of the population. Latinos of 0:01:11.600 --> 0:01:15.600 the city only accounted for fifteen percent of those vaccinated. 0:01:16.160 --> 0:01:20.679 The lowest ratio was among Black residents. Even though they 0:01:20.680 --> 0:01:23.880 make up almost a quarter of the city's population, they 0:01:23.959 --> 0:01:29.319 only accounted for eleven percent of those vaccinated. The percentage 0:01:29.319 --> 0:01:34.320 of Asians among all vaccinated residents was similar to their 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:38.560 representation in the city. A top health advisor to President 0:01:38.680 --> 0:01:43.240 Joe Biden warned Sunday that the highly transmissible UK variant 0:01:43.280 --> 0:01:47.280 of the coronavirus will likely become the dominant strain in 0:01:47.319 --> 0:01:51.840 the US. Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious 0:01:51.840 --> 0:01:55.600 Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, said 0:01:55.600 --> 0:01:58.720 on nb CS Meet the Press that the nation's health 0:01:58.760 --> 0:02:02.200 care system must pair for a surge in serious cases, 0:02:02.560 --> 0:02:07.680 such as the one experienced recently in England. Finally, the 0:02:07.800 --> 0:02:11.080 US added about a hundred and forty four thousand COVID 0:02:11.160 --> 0:02:14.760 nineteen cases on Saturday, fewer than the average of over 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:19.320 the preceding seven days. The data compiled by Johns Hopkins 0:02:19.440 --> 0:02:24.440 University and Bloomberg are further evidence the pandemic is slowing 0:02:24.760 --> 0:02:33.880 in the US and now for today's main story. Since 0:02:34.000 --> 0:02:37.080 fiser and MODERNA vaccine shipments in the US began in 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:41.880 mid December, the priority has been doctors, nurses, and other 0:02:41.919 --> 0:02:45.680 professionals likely to come in contact with the novel coronavirus, 0:02:46.360 --> 0:02:50.240 but healthcare workers who aren't with hospitals and major health 0:02:50.280 --> 0:02:54.440 systems say they're being overlooked. I spoke to reporter a 0:02:54.520 --> 0:02:58.360 Lease Young about why thousands of healthcare workers are still 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:04.399 seeking vaccinations even as states and cities open eligibility two 0:03:04.440 --> 0:03:20.040 people far removed from the pandemics frontline. Throughout the U S. 0:03:20.240 --> 0:03:24.960 Shipments of say the Fiser and MODERNA vaccine have been 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:30.280 distributed to doctors, nurses, other health professionals, but there is 0:03:30.520 --> 0:03:35.280 a significant population of medical workers who are not having 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:38.240 an easy time accessing vaccines. Can you tell us a 0:03:38.240 --> 0:03:42.680 bit about this. The priority has been from the beginning 0:03:43.400 --> 0:03:49.960 to vaccinate healthcare workers, but states made those healthcare workers 0:03:50.560 --> 0:03:54.320 those who are affiliated with hospitals, and the reason for 0:03:54.400 --> 0:03:59.720 that largely is because hospitals had the ability to store 0:04:00.080 --> 0:04:04.320 some of the vaccines, which of course require super cold 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.880 temperatures um and then it was kind of an afterthought, 0:04:08.040 --> 0:04:10.440 oh what do we do about these folks who aren't 0:04:10.520 --> 0:04:14.560 hospital employees. So we've seen in recent weeks that many 0:04:14.720 --> 0:04:18.200 U S states have begun to expand eligibility for vaccines. 0:04:18.839 --> 0:04:23.400 But how has that been impacting these professional health workers 0:04:23.640 --> 0:04:28.560 who aren't affiliated with, for example, large scale health systems 0:04:28.680 --> 0:04:33.760 or hospitals. The US has added tremendous numbers of people 0:04:33.800 --> 0:04:38.120 who are not healthcare workers. In some states, such as Florida, 0:04:38.200 --> 0:04:41.240 they said, if you are over sixty five, regardless of 0:04:41.240 --> 0:04:45.240 whether you have any medical conditions come on in if 0:04:45.839 --> 0:04:48.960 in some states have have said, you know, tax collectors 0:04:48.960 --> 0:04:52.920 should should get the vaccine, forest rangers should get the vaccine. 0:04:53.240 --> 0:04:56.760 The vaccine was scarce enough before you added these folks, 0:04:57.200 --> 0:05:00.320 and now you've got them competing with the front line 0:05:00.520 --> 0:05:03.920 workers who are actually at great risk of being exposed 0:05:03.960 --> 0:05:07.760 to the virus. Now, as you mentioned, you know a 0:05:07.760 --> 0:05:13.240 lot of for example, general practitioners or family doctors. These 0:05:13.400 --> 0:05:16.919 are people who do not work often in hospital settings, 0:05:16.920 --> 0:05:20.600 but are still very much frontline workers. What kind of 0:05:20.720 --> 0:05:24.360 data do we have about how this group of medical 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:30.480 professionals has been affected thus far by COVID nineteen there 0:05:30.600 --> 0:05:34.840 was a study done by the University at Pennsylvania's Medical 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:40.159 School about six months ago that found that healthcare workers 0:05:40.600 --> 0:05:44.720 um made up a significant portion of folks who are 0:05:44.800 --> 0:05:49.839 dying of COVID, and among those, twenty seven percent of 0:05:49.880 --> 0:05:55.679 about a thousand physician deaths were primary doctors and others 0:05:55.839 --> 0:06:00.919 who don't work in hospitals. The study said that the 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:06.200 hospital workers had a lot of access to protective personal 0:06:06.240 --> 0:06:12.480 protective equipment that folks working in independent offices might not have. 0:06:13.880 --> 0:06:16.240 And I was wondering if you could just maybe give 0:06:16.320 --> 0:06:19.360 us a bit of color um some anecdotes perhaps about 0:06:20.320 --> 0:06:25.080 what some of these, in many cases unaffiliated medical professionals 0:06:25.080 --> 0:06:28.840 have had to do and to try and get themselves vaccinated. 0:06:30.279 --> 0:06:33.640 We spoke to a doctor in Florida, a pediatrician, who 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:38.120 said it took him about a month after the vaccinations 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:43.479 first became available for himself to schedule an appointment, and 0:06:43.760 --> 0:06:48.640 as of yesterday, his physicians assistant, who he says sees 0:06:48.720 --> 0:06:52.520 more sick children than he does, has not been able 0:06:52.560 --> 0:06:55.359 to get his first shot. I also spoke to a 0:06:55.440 --> 0:07:01.279 dentist on Long Island who got his first and his 0:07:01.440 --> 0:07:04.920 next doses due on Wednesday, and he still doesn't have 0:07:05.120 --> 0:07:09.359 a second appointment. One of his office workers was lucky 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:13.760 enough to score an appointment at a megacite on Long Island, 0:07:14.360 --> 0:07:17.320 UH and was all set to go, and then the 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:21.840 megacites sent out a notice saying, sorry, we're open, just 0:07:21.920 --> 0:07:25.400 two employees. We made a mistake, so she had to cancel. 0:07:26.880 --> 0:07:30.160 And and let's look at this from the distribution angle. 0:07:30.520 --> 0:07:33.760 You know, what efforts have been made now that we 0:07:33.880 --> 0:07:37.000 know that there are these these issues with many medical 0:07:37.040 --> 0:07:40.760 professionals having trouble getting access to vaccines, what efforts have 0:07:40.880 --> 0:07:45.920 been made to try and help these this population get vaccinated. 0:07:47.240 --> 0:07:53.080 In Pennsylvania, the health chief ordered hospitals to set aside 0:07:53.200 --> 0:07:59.040 ten percent of their vaccine doses for non affiliated staff. 0:07:59.480 --> 0:08:02.560 Haven't been able to determine yet how successful that's been, 0:08:03.080 --> 0:08:06.440 and Pennsylvania is the only state that I was able 0:08:06.480 --> 0:08:09.720 to find that has done that. We have heard reports 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:15.000 that some medical professionals are are hesitant about receiving the vaccine. 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:17.600 But but this is a slightly different issue in that 0:08:18.320 --> 0:08:21.800 these professionals are are wanting to be vaccinated but are 0:08:21.880 --> 0:08:23.560 unable to do so. Can you can you tell us 0:08:23.560 --> 0:08:28.960 a bit about that. In New Jersey, we got reports 0:08:29.000 --> 0:08:34.320 around Christmas time that hospital staff we're not eager to 0:08:34.400 --> 0:08:37.280 get the vaccine because they did not want to feel 0:08:37.320 --> 0:08:41.040 any side effects around the holidays. And then we have 0:08:41.080 --> 0:08:45.800 found that sentiment around the US. UH, some health professionals 0:08:45.840 --> 0:08:47.440 have said, we don't we don't really want to be 0:08:47.480 --> 0:08:50.079 the guinea pig here, so we will wait to see 0:08:50.120 --> 0:08:54.559 what kind of effects there are. But my colleagues spoke 0:08:54.679 --> 0:08:58.600 to a an executive medical director at Oak Street Health 0:08:58.880 --> 0:09:02.040 in the Chicago area YEA, and he said that there's 0:09:02.160 --> 0:09:07.120 really broad exceptions from the traveling nurses and nurse practitioners 0:09:07.120 --> 0:09:13.200 and infusion specialists. They're saying, outright, how can I get vaccinated? Um? 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:16.800 And there's also some concern that these folks could be 0:09:17.160 --> 0:09:20.760 at greater risk because if you're working in a hospital setting, 0:09:21.600 --> 0:09:26.040 you're working among people who have been vaccinated largely, and 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:31.440 patients have been tested, and folks coming in for for 0:09:31.520 --> 0:09:35.200 elective surgery have been screened before they come in. When 0:09:35.200 --> 0:09:37.880 you're a primary care doctor, somebody makes an appointment and 0:09:37.920 --> 0:09:41.000 comes into your office, you can ask them some questions, 0:09:41.000 --> 0:09:43.880 but you're probably not going to spot test them right there. 0:09:49.760 --> 0:09:51.960 That was at least young and that's it for our 0:09:51.960 --> 0:09:55.520 show today. For coverage of the outbreak from one bureaus 0:09:55.559 --> 0:10:00.240 around the world, visit Bloomberg dot com slash coronavirus and 0:10:00.400 --> 0:10:02.600 if you like the show, please leave us a review 0:10:02.640 --> 0:10:05.880 and a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the 0:10:05.880 --> 0:10:08.920 best way to help more listeners find our global reporting. 0:10:10.080 --> 0:10:13.920 The Prognosis Daily edition is produced by Tophor foreheads Magnus 0:10:13.920 --> 0:10:18.400 Heentrickson and me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported 0:10:18.400 --> 0:10:22.559 by Elise Young. Original music by Leo Sidrin. Our editors 0:10:22.559 --> 0:10:26.600 are Rick Shine and Francesca Levi. Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's 0:10:26.600 --> 0:10:29.040 head of podcasts. Thanks for listening.