Distribution Logistics: COVID-19 Vaccines

Presenter: Grace Hammond, Public Health Science, Global Public Health Scholars

For my practicum project, I worked at CVS Pharmacy as a member of the COVID-19 task force. I had the opportunity to travel to long term care facilities with many other trained pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to vaccinate their residents and employees. My role in this program was to organize the supplies that each clinic leader and their teams would need for the long term care facilities they were visiting. I split my time between working at the depot store site packing the totes with the required materials in the correct quantities and traveling to the clinic sites to help with the check-in process, billing the patient forms, or other administrative help. I packed and organized materials such as vaccine needles and diluent to prepare the vials that were going to be used, gloves, masks, face shields, and the necessary paperwork given to each recipient of the vaccine. It was an awesome experience, and I was really lucky to have had some sort of role in providing people with the COVID-19 vaccine.

10 comentarios

Sam A

06 may 2021

Hey Grace, thank you for your work in being involved as a vaccine distribution. You're helping save lives and I really appreciate that. One of the questions to you would be, What do you think could have been done or changed to help the process of vaccine distribution go smoother?

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gracehammond2019

11 may 2021

Contestando a

Hi Sam,

Thank you! I think that the organization of this vaccine rollout could have been improved by hiring more personnel and maximizing the number of doses that could be extracted from each vial of the vaccine. One thing that weakened the process of vaccine distribution was the limited number of people working on the COVID-19 relief team at CVS. I think that bringing in more outside hires rather than relying on current staff to split time between working in the store and working to distribute the vaccine would be helpful.

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Veerapetch Petchger

06 may 2021

What were some examples of the misleading information of the vaccine that you heard from the public, particularly anti-vaccination groups?

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gracehammond2019

11 may 2021

Contestando a

Hi Veerapetch!

This is a great question! A lot of the people that I interacted with during my time with CVS were hesitant to receive the vaccine because of information that they had seen online or heard from others. Many anti-vaccination individuals believed that the vaccine had been produced in too short of a time period to be reliable. Others think that there are severe side effects that have not yet been revealed to the public. One thing that I found to be particularly interesting was the number of people who were working at CVS Pharmacy involved in the field of public health and still hesitant to receive the vaccine themselves.

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snam02

06 may 2021

Hi Grace, during your work experience, did you directly help correct misinformation to the people you met? What are some important takeaways from your experience you wish everyone could learn?

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gracehammond2019

11 may 2021

Contestando a

Great question! Overall, I was responsible for distributing information sheets containing important facts about the vaccine to those receiving or interested in receiving the vaccine. Since I was checking people in, I was able to provide some sort of information and reassurance to those individuals worried about receiving the vaccine! I think one important takeaway from my experience was the amount of work that each person at all levels of the intervention put in on a day-to-day basis. It's vital for people to understand and to recognize how crucial this work is in the success of any public health intervention.

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Kira Mazel

05 may 2021

What kind of backlash did you face in regards to anti-vaccination groups, and what did you find was the best way to combat that challenge? Did you have any experience educating people with vaccine hesitancy?

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gracehammond2019

11 may 2021

Contestando a

Hi Kira!

Thank you for the question. Personally, I did not have much experience with anti-vaccination individuals. However, I did have several experiences discussing the vaccine with those who were hesitant about its legitimacy. I was able to provide these people with Pfizer and Moderna's information packets and discuss with them the reliable years of science and research put into producing the COVID-19 vaccine. Focusing on the first question, I found that the best way to combat anti-vaccination backlash was by providing and promoting relevant and accurate data on the COVID-19 vaccine.

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Esha Saxena

04 may 2021

Hi Grace, it is amazing how you were able to get involved with the vaccine distribution. Being behind the scenes of everything must have given you a unique experience and perspective on the vaccine distribution. Your poster detailed some of the challenges faced including the need for effective communication, lack of staff, and the availability of vaccines always changing. If you were able to change one aspect of vaccine distribution protocol to avoid such challenges, what would you change?

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gracehammond2019

11 may 2021

Contestando a

Hi Esha!

Thanks for the question. I think out of all of the challenges that were faced during the vaccine distribution, effective communication was the most vital. I would definitely focus on improving the communication at all levels including nationally at the CDC, locally between production sites and distribution sites as well as the locations we were visiting to administer the vaccine. Creating a better mode of communication would help to fix the other obstacles that this rollout had faced along the way!

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