By NIKKI WENTLING | STARS AND STRIPES Published: March 8, 2021
Stars and Stripes is making stories on the coronavirus pandemic available free of charge. See more staff and wire stories here. Sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter here. Please support our journalism with a subscription. KALISPELL, Mont. – Before sunrise Tuesday, the red lights of a small, fixed-wing airplane blinked in the sky against the dark silhouette of the Northern Rocky Mountains, heading to Glacier Park International Airport in northwest Montana. The private charter plane landed, taxied and came to a stop. Stairs were dropped and five health care workers piled out. The pilot unloaded a cooler and handed it off to nurse Todd Weber, who had been monitoring its internal temperature during the hourlong flight from Helena to ensure it didn’t get too warm.
An early-morning delivery by charter plane of 52 vials of the Moderna coronavirus vaccine to Kalispell, Montana, was part of a vaccination program started by the VA to inoculate veterans in highly rural places. On Tuesday, the Montana VA Health Care System vaccinated 529 veterans there, most over age 75.