More than 430 medical students and 209 IU nursing students volunteered to support the large-scale vaccination effort and to be in the group of students on-call to administer vaccines.
“We called upon Hoosiers to help, and you have answered,” Dr. Lindsay Weaver, the state’s chief medical officer, said at an Indiana COVID-19 update with Gov. Eric Holcomb Dec. 16. “The state asked the Indiana University School of Medicine to train a volunteer army of students who will be on call to administer vaccines.”
Weaver said the volunteers responded within two weeks, and went on quote one medical student in what it was like to have the opportunity to assist the state in administering the vaccine.
“For our generation, this is one of the bigger crises that we’ve faced in our time,” Weaver said, quoting the student Dec. 16. “Short of enlisting in the military in the midst of a potential world war, this is the next best thing. We can change the tide in something that has affected everyone’s life so much.”
Weaver said registration for the vaccine was open to front line health care workers, noting the overwhelming interest in receiving the vaccine has been gratifying.
“This is an incredible blessing for everyone who has been on the front lines in our health care systems and long-term care facilities throughout this pandemic,” Weaver said. “Thank you for taking care of all of us.”
Weaver said as the weeks go on, the state will be notified by the federal government as to how many doses of the vaccine would be received based on the population of the state and the availability of the vaccine.
“This is the largest vaccine effort in the history of the state, and the history of the United States, I would say, and the history of the world,” State Health Commissioner Dr. Kristina Box said at the news conference. “It requires an enormous coordination of effort from public health and hospital systems to local health departments and pharmacies and many other entities and clinics that are going to join us along the way.”
Box urged people across the state to continue wearing masks and social distance even as the vaccine is administered over the coming months, as 26 counties across the state are in the red zone and the rest are in orange.
As of Dec. 16, no counties across the state were below 200 cases per 100,000 residents, only three counties were below 400 cases per 100,000 residents and four counties had over 1,000 cases per 100,000 residents, Box said.
“Although these are slightly better than the numbers we saw last week, it does not mean counties can begin behaving as if they’re in a lower color,” Box said. “We have talked extensively with our local health departments about when they can move into a lower tier of restriction.”
Box said while many Hoosiers want the pandemic to be over and to receive the vaccine, it’s hard to predict how soon it will be distributed to everyone.
“Please know that we will get it to you as soon as we possibly can,” Box said. “While this vaccine is the light at the end of what’s been a very long, dark tunnel, it will still be a number of months before we can make the vaccine available to every Hoosier that wants it across our state.”
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