February 21, 2021
WASHINGTON (AP) – A group of health care workers hurried out of a Boston hospital on a recent weekday morning, clutching small red coolers filled with COVID-19 vaccines.
Their challenge: Beat traffic, a looming snowstorm and the clock. They had to get shots in the arms of their homebound patients before the vaccines expired in a few hours.
“That clock is in the back of my mind the whole time,” said Dr Won Lee, a home care specialist at Boston Medical Center.
Millions of United States (US) residents will need COVID-19 vaccines brought to them because they rarely or never leave home. Doctors and nurses who specialise in home care are leading this push and starting to get help from state and local governments around the country.
By Dr. Christine Ritchie’s estimate, about 2 million people in the United States are homebound, and an additional 5 million have trouble leaving home or need help doing so.
Yet those millions of people “tend to be
sort of invisible to society,” said Ritchie, a professor at Harvard Medical School.
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They can’t drive through mass vaccination sites or stand in line outside clinics. Even if they secure a coveted appointment spot, they can’t leave their house to get there.
Now there are doctors and nurses racing against traffic, inclement weather and a ticking clock to get to them.
AP Health Writer
A group of health care workers hurried out of a Boston hospital on a recent weekday morning, clutching small red coolers filled with COVID-19 vaccines.
Their challenge: Beat traffic, a looming snowstorm and the clock. They had to get shots in the arms of their homebound patients before the vaccines expired in a few hours.
“That clock is in the back of my mind the whole time,” said Dr. Won Lee, a home care specialist at Boston Medical Center.
Millions of U.S. residents will need COVID-19 vaccines brought to them because they rarely or never leave home. Doctors and nurses who specialize in home care are leading this push and starting to get help from state and local governments around the country.
A group of health care workers hurried out of a Boston hospital on a recent weekday morning, clutching small red coolers filled with COVID-19 vaccines.T.
A group of health care workers hurried out of a Boston hospital on a recent weekday morning, clutching small red coolers filled with COVID-19 vaccines. Their challenge: Beat traffic, a looming snowstorm and the clock.