This week, some 5,000 doses of Pfizer’s newly authorized coronavirus vaccine arrived on the grounds of Stanford Medical Center in Palo Alto, Calif. — a windfall for frontline health workers eager to receive their first dose of the lifesaving injection. But a flawed prioritization plan failed to include the vast majority of the hospital’s medical residents and fellows, instead opting to give many of the first jabs to employees who don’t interact heavily with sick patients. Of the 5,000 people tapped by the hospital to receive the first injections, only seven were medical residents — a paltry fraction of the more than 1,300 in the institution’s cohort. Also left out were many fellows and nurses who have spent countless shifts attending to people hospitalized with Covid-19. (Pfizer’s vaccine requires two doses, three weeks apart, to take full effect.

Source: New York Times December 19, 2020 16:41 UTC