A list of algorithms determining how Stanford Medicine employees will receive the initial, initial dose of its Covid-1ID vaccine includes seven medical residents / fellows, according to a December 17 letter from Stanford Medicine’s main resident committee. The Stanford Medicine leadership has since apologized and promised to re-evaluate the plan.
“We take full responsibility for errors in the implementation of our vaccine distribution plan,” a Stanford Medicine spokesperson said in a statement. Edge. “Our aim was to develop an ethical and fair process for vaccine distribution. We apologize to our entire community, including our residents, fellows and other frontline care providers who bravely performed during our epidemic response. We are urgently revising our plan to better streamline vaccine delivery. “
Lead the initial plan Demonstrations by medical staff In addition to the letter sent by the main resident council.
The letter said Stanford’s decision to de-prioritize residents and fellows was incapable of being defended on the basis of science, reason, ethics and equality. (Propblica Document hosted the full letter on Cloud.) “Many of us senior professors who have worked from home since the epidemic began in March 2020 have no patient responsibilities selected for vaccination. In the meantime, we have a belt of residents and fellows on the N95 mask for the tenth month of this epidemic without a transparent and clear plan in place of our protection. “
The residents’ letter also alleged that an error in the algorithm was found on Tuesday, but that the leadership did not choose to “improve the allocation plan” before its December 17 release.
Here’s how the algorithm’s report works according to NPR:
According to an email sent to other residents by the chief resident, Stanford leaders explained that an algorithm was used to assign the first allotment of its vaccine. The algorithm states that health care workers have the highest risk of COVID infection, with factors such as age and location or the unit where they work in the hospital. Residents apparently had no assigned place, and with their usually younger age, they were placed at the bottom of the priority list.
The Stanford Medicine administration also sent a hopeful email to staff on Dec. 18 apologizing for the initial plan and making changes. “We are working quickly to eliminate the flaws in our plan and develop an improved version,” the email said. Was obtained By Propblica Health care journalist Caroline Chen. “We are hopeful that a large number of vaccines will arrive next week, which will allow us to vaccinate a significant area of our community.”
The Food and Drug Administration Has authorized two COVID-19 vaccines for use in. The vaccine, developed by Pfizer / Bioentech, was authorized on December 11, and the one developed by Moderna was authorized on December 18.
