COVID-19 vaccine rollouts gone wrong; doctor says this is the reason
INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – The country is in a race against time to end the coronavirus pandemic. Some health experts say vaccination is the only way the U.S. will reach herd immunity. But could the country be doing better in terms of vaccine distribution?
One doctor says “yes,” arguing the method the majority of the country is using – in person clinics – is slowing the vaccination process down. While in-person clinics may appear to be quicker, drive-thru clinics would be much more efficient.
“This is based on a study we did eleven years ago on the H1N1 pandemic, but the parameters are the same whether it’s H1N1 or COVID-19,” Dr. Sunderesh Heragu, professor in the School of Industrial Engineering and Management at Oklahoma State University, told News 8. “Basically, with the drive through clinic we were able to vaccinate more people in a shorter period of time. Plus, the convenience–people can be waiting in their cars. And let’s say they have infants in the back, they don’t have to get them out of the infant seats.”
Not only that, but people believe drive-thru clinics are safer and more convenient. They also allow for a larger number of people to be vaccinated at once.
In 2009, 12,000 people were vaccinated with the H1N1 vaccine in 36-hours using drive-thru clinics compared to the 6,500 vaccines administered using walk-up clinics in the same time-frame, according to Heragu
Based on this previous data, if applied today Heragu predicts one stadium parking lot with five tents translates into 1,000 vaccinations per hour based in cities with a population of over 750,000 residents. A drive-thru clinic operating eight to 10 hours for seven days per week translates into 350 million vaccinations within 100 days.
Indiana is home to more than 6.7 million residents.
“As policy makers address how to bolster mass vaccinations for COVID-19, drive-thru vaccination sites offer a means to inoculate people faster and with less waiting as compared to other mass vaccination approaches,” Heragu and his fellow authors say. “This could readily be done in literally every single community, transforming the trajectory of the COVID-19 pandemic.”
To find a vaccine clinic and register, click here.
News 8’s medical reporter, Dr. Mary Elizabeth Gillis, D.Ed., is a classically trained medical physiologist and biobehavioral research scientist. She has been a health, medical and science reporter for over five years. Her work has been featured in national media outlets. You can follow her on Facebook @DrMaryGillis.