Keeping it ultra-cold: CPNHS rolls out COVID-19 vaccines
Lenzy Krehbiel-Burton
One arm at a time.
One shot at a time.
Within days of emergency use authorization from the Food and Drug Administration, Citizen Potawatomi Nation Health Services began receiving and administering vaccines to combat the coronavirus in central Oklahoma.
Along with the other self-governance tribes across Oklahoma, CPNHS opted to get its primary vaccine doses through the Indian Health Service rather than through the Oklahoma State Department of Health.
CPNHS Chief Medical Officer Dr. Adam Vascellaro said the decision to go through IHS was deliberate. This move increases the chances of both the tribe and its pandemic vaccination partner, the Pottawatomie County Health Department, having dual distributor access to the COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine for the populations they serve.