To Get Leftover Vaccines In Hawaii, It Helps To Be Related To A Hospital Employee - Honolulu Civil Beat
To Get Leftover Vaccines In Hawaii, It Helps To Be Related To A Hospital Employee
In the absence of official guidance on how to distribute extra COVID-19 vaccines, two Hawaii hospitals are prioritizing employees’ families. Reading time: 7 minutes.
Leftover COVID-19 vaccines are raising ethical quandaries for Hawaii hospitals as they race to get as many shots in arms as possible to bring a long-awaited end to the year-old coronavirus pandemic.
The Moderna and Pfizer vaccines have to be stored at a certain temperature, and at the end of each day, vaccination sites sometimes have a handful of extra doses from open vials that must be used or go to waste. Nationwide, vaccination sites are grappling with what to do with leftover doses, sometimes giving them to whomever happens to be nearby.
AARP Hosts vaccine town hall for kupuna
Credit Tony Webster/Flickr / CC BY-SA 2.0
The vaccine rollout here in Hawaii is limited to how many doses are sent our way. Every Thursday, the state is told how much of a supply we will receive the following week. The logistics can be problematic as health officials are trying to schedule as many people in the high risk group without wasting the precious vaccines. AARP Hawaii is reaching out to our kupuna who may not have access to computers this weekend via phone. It s a chance for kupuna to ask questions about the COVID vaccine rollout. Executive Director
U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services on vaccine rollout
It s been a little more than two weeks since the first COVID-19 vaccine went into the arm of a Hawaii resident - a frontline healthcare worker. That s the first group to receive the vaccines, but you might be wondering when it s going to be your turn. That depends. Each state has come up with its own distribution plan, coordinating with federal groups from the Centers for Disease Control to the Department of Health and Human Services. Eric Hargan is the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. He oversees vaccine distribution plans of the Department s 9th Region, which includes Hawaii. He spoke with The Conversation s Harrison Patino about the latest on t he national vaccination program.
Civil Beat Politics and Opinions Editor Chad Blair
Credit AP Photo/Paul Sancya Hawaii Small Business Woes As 2020 comes to a close, many small business owners are looking back on a devastating year. While various programs have offered support in the ways of payroll protection or pivot grants, more entrepreneurs are asking the question “why isn’t our government doing more?” The Conversation’s producer Harrison Patino reached out to various members of Hawaii’s small business community to see what they had to say.
Listen
Halia Aloha Series
Watermark Publishing s new memoir writing program
Has someone ever told you that you should write a book about your life, but you just didn t know where to start. A new program from Honolulu-based Watermark Publishing cdan help you get your memories into a book. The guided program, called the Halia Aloha Series, prompts writers to craft short micro-narratives, which helps authors capture a snapshot in their life and makes it easier for readers to enter a memoir. After a roughly nine-month process, writers will have a few published copies under Watermark s Legacy Isle Publishing imprint. Darien Hsu Gee is the Halia Aloha Series editor. Click here to read more about the program.