The Vaccine Project Newsletter: Rolling up our sleeves without letting down our guard prweek.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from prweek.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
To read Part 1, click here.
SR: Has the healthcare packaging and processing industry done anything supplier-wise to step up this year to help out with these efforts?
KS: Definitely. I feel like nearly everybody in this industry has really stepped up in some way. There s been tons of overtime and manufacturing and pivoting with modifying machines and things like that. I know
Aphena have opened new facilities with cold chain storage and
Pelican has expanded its deep-frozen line of shippers to meet the needs of these ultra-low temperature products. And
Lifoam was recently awarded patents for its bio-based alternative to traditional EPS packaging Styrofoam–this one’s not so much related specifically to COVID-19, but at the same time, when we talk about how much the entire pharma cold chain is stepping up to meet these needs, we also have to think about how, even if you re not personally shipping vaccines, your cold chain is being affected because there s really o
PAUL HAMBY
A Montana truck manufacturer that has adjusted its production several times since the outbreak of COVID-19 has again shifted gears.
Acela Truck Co., based in Belgrade, has found customers among the agencies vaccinating millions of Americans. Its latest product is a custom-built trailer suited for the health care workers administering those vaccines.
âWe have developed very close relationships with Operation Warp Speed, with FEMA, [the Department of] Health and Human Services and a number of the very large state and federal agencies that have been involved in the COVID-19 response ⦠So, weâve been talking with them for many months about vaccination trailers,â said David Ronsen, president of Acela.
/
Editor s note: This story was originally published by Kaiser Health News Jan. 4, 2021. Republished with permission.
Funeral director Kevin Spitzer has been overwhelmed with covid-related deaths in the small city of Aberdeen, South Dakota.
He and his two colleagues at the Spitzer-Miller Funeral Home have been working 12-15 hours a day, seven days a week, to keep up with the demand in the community of 26,000. The funerals are sparsely attended, which would have been unthinkable before the pandemic.
“We had a funeral for a younger man one recent Saturday, and not 20 people came, because most everyone was just afraid,” he said.
By Cindy Loose
Kaiser Health News/TNS
Funeral director Kevin Spitzer has been overwhelmed with COVID-19-related deaths in the small city of Aberdeen, SD.
He and his two colleagues at the Spitzer-Miller Funeral Home have been working 12-15 hours a day, seven days a week, to keep up with the demand in the community of 26,000. The funerals are sparsely attended, which would have been unthinkable before the pandemic.
“We had a funeral for a younger man one recent Saturday, and not 20 people came, because most everyone was just afraid,” he said.
As COVID-19 has spread from big cities to rural communities, it has stressed not only hospitals, but also what some euphemistically call “last responders.” The crush has overwhelmed morgues, funeral homes and religious leaders, required ingenuity and even changed the rituals of honoring the dead.