COVID-19 vaccine will face many ‘logistical hurdles’ with distribution: Doctor
The COVID-19 vaccine rollout has begun in the U.S. as cases rise. South Dakota State Medical Association President Dr. Benjamin Aaker joins Yahoo Finance Live to discuss.
Video Transcript
- The number of deaths from COVID-19 now topping 300,000. And the picture is especially grim in rural America. We're now seeing North Dakota and South Dakota reporting the most deaths per capita in the last week.
Let's bring in Dr. Benjamin Aaker. He's president of the South Dakota State Medical Association. Dr. Aaker, it's good to talk to you. We should point out, even with those deaths, we have seen a decline in the number of cases in South Dakota. Give me a sense of how things look for you on the ground right now.
BENJAMIN AAKER: Well, we're very happy to see a decrease in cases. But we know that the deaths lag after that. So it could be a couple of weeks before we see that go up, and that's what we're worried about right now.
I work in the emergency department. I'm an emergency physician. And you know, there's a big concern that those of us have in the emergency department of what could happen if we get that deluge of patients who are sick, and some that are very sick. And if we get them all at the same time, that might overwhelm the hospitals in South Dakota.
- And Dr. Aaker, not just that, but also on top of that, the second wave, potentially, that could stem from the follow on to the Thanksgiving family gatherings, and now, Christmas, as well here. When you look at that expectation and where hospitals are at in the state, how stretched do you assess things are at the moment?
BENJAMIN AAKER: Yeah, right now, we feel like we have a handle on the minute to minute time frame of what's happening. We can take care of our patients that come in the door and we can get them into the hospital or the ICU if they need it, and hopefully save their lives of those that we can. The concern, as you said, with Thanksgiving, if people got together, if a lot of people came together and brought coronavirus with them and spread it to their families and then out into the community, then that could then take a while for them to start getting sick enough to have to seek the emergency department.
So we're cautiously optimistic that people would have-- will have taken our recommendations and will take our recommendations for Christmas. But we're also preparing for the worst, which is being inundated with patients that could be coming in.
- And Doctor, we're getting these grim numbers, of course, at a time when there seems like there's some optimism-- the light at the end of the tunnel, if you will, with the first rollout of those COVID vaccines yesterday. Give me a sense of what the challenges are on the ground in the rural parts of your state. We've heard more and more about the challenges, the need for some of these freezer facilities, that second shot being more of a challenge because patients are going to have to drive back hours to get to a hospital that can get that.
BENJAMIN AAKER: Yeah, so the need for the refrigeration, that's a big challenge. Right now, we've-- by "we" I mean the state of South Dakota-- has done a lot of work into deciding who should be the ones to get that first round of vaccines. There's been a lot of talk about that. That will go to the front line workers and some of the long care facility residents.
Beyond that, when we start talking about giving that vaccine to general population, there will be some logistical hurdles. Because that vaccine will have to travel long distance to get out to the rural parts of South Dakota so that it can be given. And as you said, it needs to be-- the current vaccine that we have will need to be given twice. So those patients who are able to get that vaccine may have to travel twice to be able to get it.
- And Doctor, I mean, the governor of South Dakota has been pretty outspoken about not returning to lockdowns there, batting back fears that it might have to happen if things do turn south later on in December or even in January. And I mean, that's something we've seen globally, here, as Germany steps up its lockdown there for the holiday season, as well, after they weren't able to get a handle on cases. What do you think the percentage chances are that some states like yours might have to return to those if things don't improve?
BENJAMIN AAKER: Well, South Dakota was never in lockdown for the entire coronavirus pandemic. The governor had not issued a lockdown. There has been some local pushes to have a mask mandate. The State Medical Association, of which I am president, is in favor of a statewide mask mandate. We do not have that in South Dakota.
Our governor has said that she will not be, or is not able to, or doesn't have the authority to give a mask mandate or to lock down South Dakota. I don't know the legal ramifications of that as a physician. But we do not anticipate having that in South Dakota. And that may cause us problems.
- Even with those challenges that you point out, you have been able to bring your case counts down about 27% over the last few weeks. You also have hospitalization down. What do you think has contributed to that decline, especially when you consider exactly what you pointed out-- in the face of the surge that you've seen in the state, there wasn't a whole lot done to really try and stem the flow of the virus?
BENJAMIN AAKER: In the Medical Association, as physicians, we really-- we realized that we needed to take that frontline role in educating the population about the risk of the coronavirus and the things that they needed to do in order to help to limit that spread. That's the handwashing, that's the physical distancing, and that's the mask wearing. And so we took it upon ourselves, and ourselves among 40 other groups got together and started a Mask Up South Dakota campaign in late October, and had press release, and we've had a lot of advertisements.
And a lot of this group is from various organizations, trade organizations and various hospitals and health systems in South Dakota. We've all come together to say, OK, if we're not going to have a mandatory mask wearing, then we're going to rely on each individual person to take that personal responsibility to protect yourselves, your family, and your community. And I think that we're having a good effect now.
- And Doctor, I mean, when we talk about how the vaccine rollout's going to go, Akiko was asking about the struggles about distribution. When you look at the population of North and South Dakota-- it's something our viewers have pointed out-- roughly along the same lines as Manhattan. And in terms of concentration of people, it's very different across the states. So talk to me about that, in terms of maybe what it might look like in some more rural states in getting it out and making sure that everyone can get this quickly, and not have to struggle with driving a lot of distances. What's it going to look like, and what needs to be done there in some of these more, I guess, less densely populated states to make sure it goes smoothly?
BENJAMIN AAKER: Yes, I'm not the one who makes the decisions on that, but my recommendation to those who are would be that we need to have as many sites as possible that are able to refrigerate the vaccine and to be able to give that vaccine, to administer that vaccine to the general population. So we need to have it-- these sites spread out in the rural South Dakota.
Now, each one of those comes at a cost, and I don't know what that cost is. So I realize there's a lot of logistical things that need to come together for that. But the important thing is to try to make it as easy as possible for people to get that vaccine. That'll go a long way to getting the amount of patients together that we need to have vaccinations in order to get that so-called "herd immunity."
- And Doctor, even with that plan in place, the next step, it seems like, would be convincing the public to actually get the vaccine when it is available on a larger scale. How do you build that confidence?
BENJAMIN AAKER: Well, a lot of it is by showing those of us who are going to be vaccinated that when we're getting the vaccination to be able to tell people how it was. You know, did it hurt? Is it-- was it easy? Was it difficult? Those kind of things. And I plan, when I get vaccinated, and that's going to be hopefully this week as an emergency physician, to be able to publicize that to the population of South Dakota as much as possible. I presume it will be easy and painless.
And I'm looking forward to getting that, because that is the best thing I can do at this point to help my community. And if I can portray that to the population as a physician, and if I can get the population to speak with their physician and to get that best information from their physician, that's the best way to get people to take the vaccine.
- Yes, certainly a long road ahead there. Doctor, it's good to talk to you. Today, Dr. Benjamin Aaker, president of the South Dakota State Medical Association.
BENJAMIN AAKER: Thank you.
