House lawmakers want to know how the distribution of the COVID vaccine is going nationwide.
At a hearing Wednesday, witnesses said that the current supply and lack of infrastructure prevents greater access. A doctor with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation says that the system has to be redesigned in a way that helps people who are most difficult to reach, or most likely to get sick.
According to Dr. Julia Morita, “Currently, what needs to happen since there is a limited supply is that the locations need to be strategic so they are easily accessible to all communities, and in addition to that, there are efforts being made to simplify the registration process for people that don’t have access to the internet, who don’t have a car, or who have to work during the day and access the vaccine later in the night or on weekend.”
Many rural health departments simply do not have the freezers necessary to store the Pfizer vaccine. That limits the ability to act as distribution sites.
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