WEBVTT - Louisiana's Vaccine Test Run 0:00:07.000 --> 0:00:11.680 Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day two hundred 0:00:11.720 --> 0:00:15.800 and seventy five since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. 0:00:16.520 --> 0:00:20.240 Today's main story. How do you roll out a vaccine 0:00:20.600 --> 0:00:24.880 state by state to hundreds of millions of people in 0:00:24.960 --> 0:00:29.640 the middle of a pandemic. You start with the flu shot. 0:00:30.640 --> 0:00:44.720 But first, Here's what happened in Virus News today. The 0:00:44.800 --> 0:00:49.600 first COVID nineteen vaccine shots were administered by US hospitals 0:00:49.800 --> 0:00:53.680 on Monday. It's the initial step in a historic drive 0:00:53.800 --> 0:00:57.880 to immunize millions of people as deaths in the US 0:00:58.120 --> 0:01:03.000 approach the three hundred thousand mark. The first shot went 0:01:03.040 --> 0:01:06.640 to critical care nurse Sandra Lindsay in New York, the 0:01:06.680 --> 0:01:11.039 city that was once the epicenter of the pandemic. Hospitals 0:01:11.160 --> 0:01:15.280 around the country went into overdrive this weekend preparing to 0:01:15.360 --> 0:01:21.160 receive and administer the first doses of the vaccine. Shipments 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:25.720 started leaving Fiser's Michigan plant early on Sunday morning, less 0:01:25.720 --> 0:01:29.200 than two days after the Food and Drug Administration authorized 0:01:29.240 --> 0:01:33.320 the vaccine for emergency use. They are scheduled to arrive 0:01:33.360 --> 0:01:39.399 at hundreds of sites between today and Wednesday, Italy overtook 0:01:39.440 --> 0:01:42.959 the UK as the European country with the highest number 0:01:43.040 --> 0:01:47.120 of COVID nineteen deaths. The death toll puts pressure on 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:51.240 Prime Minister Giuseppe Conti's government as it seeks to prevent 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:55.840 a flare up of the contagion during the holiday season. Finally, 0:01:56.240 --> 0:01:59.360 Fightser and bio Antech may soon allow participants in its 0:01:59.440 --> 0:02:03.559 vaccine trial to learn whether they received a placebo rather 0:02:03.680 --> 0:02:07.920 than the real thing, and get the actual shot if 0:02:08.000 --> 0:02:12.560 they wish. In an emailed statement, Fizer said the option 0:02:12.720 --> 0:02:22.760 would be voluntary and now for today's main story. As 0:02:22.800 --> 0:02:25.480 the first shots of the COVID nineteen vaccines in the 0:02:25.600 --> 0:02:29.440 US are administered, one of many big hurdles has yet 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:33.480 to be cleared. States must transport and distribute the massive 0:02:33.600 --> 0:02:36.720 orders to the millions who need it. The state of 0:02:36.760 --> 0:02:41.919 Louisiana has been thinking about this problem for months. In November, 0:02:42.400 --> 0:02:47.240 they decided to test their vaccination strategy using the flu 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:51.639 vaccine for the first time. The state hosted drive through 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:55.840 clinics across all of its nine public health regions. These 0:02:55.960 --> 0:03:00.400 were official exercises to practice vaccinating the state's nearly five 0:03:00.520 --> 0:03:05.440 million residents in the era of Social Distancing Angelica Levito, 0:03:05.680 --> 0:03:09.600 went to Shreveport, Louisiana, as the project was unfolding to 0:03:09.720 --> 0:03:13.800 find out what a mass vaccination looks like during a pandemic. 0:03:25.160 --> 0:03:28.720 I'm standing in the parking lot at the Louisiana State Fairgrounds. 0:03:29.320 --> 0:03:32.480 Often the distance towards the outskirts of the grounds you 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:36.200 can see signs for pizza and corn dogs. It's about 0:03:36.200 --> 0:03:39.120 eight o'clock in the morning, and local health workers have 0:03:39.200 --> 0:03:42.360 already been here for hours setting up a drive through 0:03:42.400 --> 0:03:47.320 flu shot clinic. To my left, we have the Health 0:03:47.400 --> 0:03:53.240 Department workers who are getting organized. They were moving boxes 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:57.760 earlier filled with gloves, and then there's thermometers that they're 0:03:57.800 --> 0:04:00.760 going to be handing out to people in line. Over here, 0:04:00.840 --> 0:04:08.880 the National Guard setting up tents. They're in uniform. Everybody's 0:04:08.920 --> 0:04:12.720 wearing a mask. The Health Department is hosting similar scenes 0:04:12.760 --> 0:04:15.920 across the state this fall. These are to practice how 0:04:15.960 --> 0:04:20.400 the state might administer COVID nineteen vaccines when they become available. 0:04:21.080 --> 0:04:23.880 It's the first time the city of Shreveport has offered 0:04:23.960 --> 0:04:28.120 drive through vaccinations. It's also the largest vaccine event the 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.360 area has ever hosted. Nurses are ready to give up 0:04:31.400 --> 0:04:36.800 to one thousand five shots. Dr Martha White overseas the operation. 0:04:37.360 --> 0:04:41.200 She leads the regional Health office. Today, she whizzes around 0:04:41.200 --> 0:04:44.479 the parking lot, checking in with her nurses, the National Guard, 0:04:44.560 --> 0:04:49.520 and the police officers patrolling the area. It's nine oh one. 0:04:51.360 --> 0:04:56.080 We have our first few cars coming through. The nurses 0:04:56.120 --> 0:05:03.640 are preparing the shot. They're working together taking out the vial. 0:05:05.360 --> 0:05:09.840 Because these are not individual doses, they have to actually 0:05:10.440 --> 0:05:14.320 take out with a syringe of free set amount. And 0:05:14.400 --> 0:05:17.320 here we go. Here comes another nurse and she is 0:05:19.400 --> 0:05:25.960 sticking the man's arm with a shot and rolls down 0:05:26.040 --> 0:05:29.920 his sleeve. He puts the car in gear and now 0:05:29.960 --> 0:05:37.200 he's on his way. This scene almost makes the operation 0:05:37.320 --> 0:05:40.200 look easy, but it's only a preview of a far 0:05:40.320 --> 0:05:44.560 more complex effort ahead. The United States will soon start 0:05:44.680 --> 0:05:49.320 its largest mass vaccination campaign in modern history. The goal 0:05:49.480 --> 0:05:53.640 is to immunize as many Americans as possible against COVID nineteen. 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:58.720 The challenges are almost endless. The vaccines themselves are delicate. 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:01.880 They have to be up at specific temperatures in order 0:06:01.920 --> 0:06:05.919 to be effective. Then doctors and pharmacists will need to 0:06:05.960 --> 0:06:09.400 make sure people come back for their second shot, and 0:06:09.600 --> 0:06:12.080 they will need to vaccinate millions of people. In the 0:06:12.160 --> 0:06:18.080 era of social distancing, vaccines could help end a pandemic 0:06:18.240 --> 0:06:22.719 that has killed about three hundred thousand Americans and ravaged 0:06:22.800 --> 0:06:27.000 the economy. Both effects can be felt here in Louisiana. 0:06:27.880 --> 0:06:31.080 The state has a high number of infections and deaths. 0:06:31.120 --> 0:06:35.039 As a percent of its population, About two hundred seventy 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:39.359 thousand people have fallen ill about seven thousand have died. 0:06:40.760 --> 0:06:45.159 Downtown Shreveport is empty these days. Government employees are working 0:06:45.160 --> 0:06:50.120 from home. Signs outside coffee shops ask patrons to wear masks. 0:06:50.880 --> 0:06:54.479 Some slot machines at the casinos along the riverfront are 0:06:54.520 --> 0:06:59.279 turned off to allow for social distancing. Shreveport Mayor Adrian 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:04.080 Perkins says the city's economy has been devastated. One large 0:07:04.120 --> 0:07:07.680 casino in the area is already out of business, and 0:07:07.920 --> 0:07:10.680 our casino is here locally have been hit very, very 0:07:10.720 --> 0:07:14.040 hard as well with the revenue short tenses. When they 0:07:14.040 --> 0:07:16.520 close the casinos and now when they opened them, they 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:19.160 still can only have so much capacity, so their revenue 0:07:19.200 --> 0:07:22.000 is down and that impacts the city's budget because the 0:07:22.040 --> 0:07:25.200 city get revenue directly from the casinos and NINA Prose fund, 0:07:25.680 --> 0:07:28.120 so the city budget has been hit quite hard as well. 0:07:28.800 --> 0:07:32.040 Controlling the virus offers the only way forward for Shreeve 0:07:32.040 --> 0:07:36.160 Sport and communities across the country, but not everybody wants 0:07:36.160 --> 0:07:41.800 to comply with measures to stop the spread. Some people 0:07:41.840 --> 0:07:45.240 do not believe the virus is real. Dr White can 0:07:45.280 --> 0:07:48.000 tell you it's very real. Her husband was on a 0:07:48.080 --> 0:07:52.880 ventilator for two months, nearly dying multiple times. She has 0:07:52.920 --> 0:07:57.880 reviewed every coronavirus JET certificate in the region, Yet every 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:01.280 day she fights with people who called a pandemic hoax. 0:08:02.080 --> 0:08:04.920 She pleads with people who were exposed to the virus 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:08.840 to quarantine. She begs others to simply wear a mask. 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:13.160 Someone compared her to the Soviet unions Joseph Stalin. She 0:08:13.320 --> 0:08:17.040 blames it on COVID becoming so politicized. She says the 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:20.960 divide has made her job much harder. If people are 0:08:21.440 --> 0:08:25.960 happy with the restrictions and they aren't happy with, you know, 0:08:26.320 --> 0:08:30.080 having to isolate or quarantine, and so you have to 0:08:30.160 --> 0:08:33.839 sometimes tell people things I don't want to hear. But 0:08:34.320 --> 0:08:37.320 all I can do is tell them what this viruses 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:39.400 and what it's gonna do and what they need to 0:08:39.440 --> 0:08:45.480 do in response. And it's really much Dr White's work 0:08:45.520 --> 0:08:49.480 won't get any easier once COVID vaccines become available. She 0:08:49.559 --> 0:08:52.520 will need to tell people to trust the science. A 0:08:52.559 --> 0:08:56.400 lot of people already don't ad in skepticism from minority 0:08:56.440 --> 0:08:59.640 communities who have been hit especially hard by the virus, 0:09:00.160 --> 0:09:04.559 and you have quite the challenge. There's definitely vaccine hesitancy, 0:09:04.840 --> 0:09:07.680 but there's vaccine hesitancy all the time. And then now 0:09:07.720 --> 0:09:11.120 that you've got this new vaccine, some people are like, 0:09:11.280 --> 0:09:15.520 I think I'm gonna wait and see, and um, I 0:09:15.600 --> 0:09:20.640 think that there's also all these conspiracy theories, and so 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:22.679 you know, if you can get back down to the 0:09:22.760 --> 0:09:26.559 science of it um and talk to them about all 0:09:26.640 --> 0:09:30.439 the research and the fact that most of these vaccines 0:09:30.559 --> 0:09:34.640 started in preparation to stars and mergs, so there was 0:09:34.679 --> 0:09:37.480 a base on It's not like it just they already 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:40.440 had a good strong base for the vaccine. So it 0:09:40.480 --> 0:09:45.080 didn't happen overnight. It's not been rushed, you know. Actually 0:09:45.080 --> 0:09:49.040 administering shots will also be hard. Drive throughs are good 0:09:49.040 --> 0:09:52.120 way to space people out, but they also require a 0:09:52.160 --> 0:09:57.120 lot of work to stand up. Back at the fairgrounds, 0:09:57.480 --> 0:10:01.160 dozens of nurses are ready to give flu shots. Cars 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:05.360 trickle in more slowly than Dr White would like. Nurses 0:10:05.440 --> 0:10:08.400 lounge and soccer chairs waiting for people to show up. 0:10:09.280 --> 0:10:14.679 One nurse, don Leone, has seen the virus's deadly capabilities firsthand. 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:18.480 I think that people might not respect this barrow is 0:10:18.520 --> 0:10:21.800 the way that we should. Leonie's family had been gathering 0:10:21.880 --> 0:10:25.880 every Sunday to worship together. Somebody brought the virus one 0:10:25.880 --> 0:10:32.560 weekend and infected the others. Nine relatives tested positive. Leonie's mother, father, 0:10:32.840 --> 0:10:37.040 and husband were all hospitalized at the same time. Her 0:10:37.080 --> 0:10:41.360 father died, Her mother and husband recovered. Her husband's still 0:10:41.360 --> 0:10:45.680 experiences lingering effects like shortness of breadth. There's a real 0:10:45.720 --> 0:10:48.679 struggle for families, and it's not just illness. It affects 0:10:48.679 --> 0:10:52.120 other areas of our homes and our loves and um. 0:10:52.160 --> 0:10:53.960 It will affect me for a long time to see 0:10:53.960 --> 0:10:57.160 with us saw my dad went through. Vaccines could return 0:10:57.280 --> 0:11:01.000 a sense of normalcy if enough people get one. That's 0:11:01.000 --> 0:11:05.040 why Dr White's role is so important. Practicing now gives 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:07.720 her a chance to see what works. You know, the 0:11:07.800 --> 0:11:10.880 flow has gone really well, so we like the way 0:11:10.920 --> 0:11:15.000 it's set up, and I think it's we wouldn't have 0:11:15.160 --> 0:11:17.319 a back up even we'd had to take a lot 0:11:17.360 --> 0:11:20.559 of people for us to get behind, So that's good. 0:11:22.679 --> 0:11:25.560 I think it's been a good walkthrough. I just wish 0:11:25.600 --> 0:11:28.360 we had more people to tast it. The fairgrounds are 0:11:28.360 --> 0:11:32.160 a good place to reach vulnerable residents. They are located 0:11:32.200 --> 0:11:35.880 on the west side of town, home to Shreveport's black community. 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:41.320 Mayor Perkins says Shreveport is divided into two distinct sections. 0:11:41.320 --> 0:11:46.120 Like most Southern cities, a bus route runs along the fairgrounds. 0:11:47.040 --> 0:11:50.120 Dr White says in the future they could offer walk 0:11:50.200 --> 0:11:53.440 up shots to accommodate residents who can't drive there on 0:11:53.480 --> 0:11:56.880 their own. She also thinks about the best hours to 0:11:56.920 --> 0:12:00.800 reach more workers. These are all elements to consider for 0:12:00.880 --> 0:12:04.880 next time. The question is like this sustainability, So like 0:12:04.960 --> 0:12:07.120 how long would you want to do it this way? 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:09.400 So would we do it once a week? Would you 0:12:09.480 --> 0:12:12.319 do it, you know, for a full week and say, okay, 0:12:12.360 --> 0:12:15.200 anybody who wants to come. That's what you'd have to 0:12:15.280 --> 0:12:18.640 tweak in your head about, like what are what are 0:12:18.640 --> 0:12:21.720 the other ways we're going to offer. By the end 0:12:21.720 --> 0:12:24.880 of the day, only four hundred of the one thousand, 0:12:25.000 --> 0:12:28.959 five hundred shots are given out. Dr White wonders if 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:33.199 people already were vaccinated. Because it's now November. The CDC 0:12:33.480 --> 0:12:36.480 had recommended getting a flu shot by the end of October. 0:12:37.040 --> 0:12:39.640 Dr White will share the results from the flu shot 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:44.240 clinic with her boss, Dr Frank Welch. He leads the 0:12:44.280 --> 0:12:48.600 state health departments immunization planning and he knows the importance 0:12:48.640 --> 0:12:53.120 of thinking ahead. Louisiana has seen its share of hurricanes, floods, 0:12:53.280 --> 0:12:57.720 and tornadoes. Is conducted as an official exercise. So um, 0:12:57.840 --> 0:13:01.760 these things will be with everything. Things will go wrong, 0:13:01.840 --> 0:13:03.800 will be shared with everyone, and we will do and 0:13:03.840 --> 0:13:06.480 what we've falling after action report to say, you know, 0:13:06.760 --> 0:13:08.720 these are the good things, these are the bad things. 0:13:08.720 --> 0:13:12.160 Here's how we solve them. Here's if we didn't solve it, 0:13:12.679 --> 0:13:15.200 and you know, sharing that with our entire state to 0:13:15.240 --> 0:13:19.240 make sure that everyone gets the benefit of those Unlike 0:13:19.240 --> 0:13:23.280 with coronavirus testing, the state has a luxury of months 0:13:23.280 --> 0:13:26.760 to prepare. It will need every second it can get. 0:13:27.520 --> 0:13:40.000 This campaign will be like no other. That was Angelica 0:13:40.080 --> 0:13:42.960 Levito and that's it for our show today. For coverage 0:13:42.960 --> 0:13:45.640 of the outbreak from one and twenty bureaus around the world, 0:13:46.040 --> 0:13:50.200 visit bloomberg dot com, slash coronavirus and if you like 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:52.679 the show, please leave us a review and a rating 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:56.000 on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to 0:13:56.000 --> 0:14:00.240 help more listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily 0:14:00.360 --> 0:14:04.760 edition is produced by Tophor foreheads Jordan's Gaspoure, Magnus Hendrickson, 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:08.520 and me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported by 0:14:08.559 --> 0:14:12.880 Angelica Levito. Original music by Leo Sidrin. Our editors are 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:17.160 Rick Shine and Francesco Levi. Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's head 0:14:17.160 --> 0:14:19.320 of podcasts. Thanks for listening.