Indiana hospital rehearses roll-out of much-anticipated COVID-19 vaccine

[December 11, 2020]  By Brendan O'Brien

INDIANAPOLIS (Reuters) - An Indiana hospital on Friday will conduct a rehearsal of procedures for administering Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine, anticipating that it will be able to begin inoculating patients next week, a major step in the battle to end the pandemic.

A handful of pharmacists, nurses and doctors are expected to take part in the dry run on the Indiana University Health campus in Indianapolis, the state's capital city. The participants will spend the morning practicing procedures for storing, transporting and giving the vaccine shot to patients.

The hospital is one of the first healthcare facilities in the United States designated to administer the vaccine, developed by Pfizer Inc and German partner BioNTech SE .

"The short term goal is to make sure that no stone is unturned," said Kristen Kelley, director of infection prevention at IU Health. "We want to make sure that we are perfectly ready and open with a bang."

A panel of outside advisers to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to endorse emergency use of the vaccine, paving the way for the agency to authorize the shot.

The FDA is widely expected to authorize the vaccine for emergency use in the United States within days. Distribution and inoculations are expected to begin almost immediately thereafter, marking a major stride in the race to stop a pandemic that has already killed 290,000 Americans.

Britain has already approved the vaccine, and inoculations began there this week.

IU Health officials said they expect to initially get 975 doses that will be given to healthcare workers.

A vial of the Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine is seen ahead of being administered at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Belfast, Northern Ireland December 8, 2020. Liam McBurney/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo

The rehearsal in Indianapolis will consist of two dry runs involving routine injection scenarios, while a third will rehearse procedures when issues such as anaphylaxis and pain at the injection site arise, IU Health officials said.

One of the main challenges that medical staff face is the many steps involved in the delicate process of receiving the drug, storing it in ultra-cool freezers and preparing it to give to patients, Kelley said.

"Everyone has to perform their role perfectly and seamlessly," she said.

Per capita, Indiana had the second-worst COVID-19 spread in the United States this week, behind Rhode Island, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Kelley said her hospital had seen an unprecedented number of COVID-19 patients since Thanksgiving. Doctors, nurses and other medical staff are exhausted, she said.

"This is going to require us to dig deep like never before, but this is the start of the path for us to walk out of this," she said.

(Reporting by Brendan O'Brien in Indianapolis; Editing by Christopher Cushing)

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