- For nearly a year, we've been living in the shadow of COVID-19, a contagious and often deadly virus that has fundamentally changed our world.

And now as the first vaccines have been made available, there is some light appearing on the horizon.

Tonight, we have gathered experts in the WDSE WRPT studio to answer some of the questions people have about the virus and the vaccines.

It's the combination of a day-long effort by local TV stations and the Duluth News Tribune, supported by health providers and community partners.

COVID-19 Vaccine: Finding Answers is next.

(inquisitive music) And thank you very much for joining us for this special program, I'm Dennis Anderson.

As our region navigates the next chapter in the battle against COVID-19, we have joined with other Duluth media outlets in an all-day effort to answer some of the questions people have about the virus and the vaccines.

And so over the next hour, we will have video reports from CBS 3, KBJR, WDIO, FOX21, and the Duluth News Tribune.

And Dr. Ray Christensen, the Associate Dean for Rural Health at the University of Minnesota Medical School Duluth is joining us in live interviews with local health experts.

Before we get to those stories and the interviews, we do want to share some important resources with you.

If you've not yet been vaccinated, the Minnesota COVID-19 Vaccine Connector is a good place to start.

You can fill out a simple form on the website to find out when you will be eligible for a vaccine and help connect you to an appointment.

Essentia Health is advising its patients to sign up through it's MyChart program as the most efficient way to get notified and scheduled for the vaccine.

St. Luke's is asking patients to use their myCare Patient Portal account to schedule an appointment when they are eligible.

St. Luke's is also a calling primary care patients aged 65 and over for their vaccine.

Patients of the Grand Itasca Clinic & Hospital or Fairview Range facilities in Northern Minnesota are encouraged to use the MyChart Portal to schedule an appointment when you are eligible.

So, how safe is the vaccine and how effective is it?

These are just a few of the many questions people have about the COVID-19 vaccine.

Dr. Ray Christensen is standing by with our very first guest tonight and some answers to those questions.

Ray.

- Thank you, Denny.

It's really great to be here.

Our first guest tonight has been in the front lines fighting this virus from the very beginning.

It's really my pleasure to welcome Dr. Andrew Thompson, an infectious disease specialist with St. Luke's Hospital.

Dr. Thompson, thank you so much for being here tonight.

- [Dr. Thompson] My pleasure.

- We have a few questions that we kind of want to run by you tonight.

I think first of all, starting out with just a general assessment of the current situation.

Where are we at, how do you see it, especially with the vaccines and so on?

- Well, given where we started about a year ago, there's been an amazing development in technology.

We have two vaccines which are safe and highly effective, which have already been out and are in millions of people's arms.

Vaccination started in December of 2020 to many healthcare providers and other high-risk folks.

There's a Johnson & Johnson vaccine which we just heard more news about this morning.

There are indications that it also is highly effective and safe.

And we'll know more probably next week from the FDA about whether that will be approved for emergency use.

- Do you think we're kind of getting over the hump with this pandemic?

- I wouldn't say that yet.

We've had encouraging news.

Cases are decreasing, deaths are decreasing, but there's still a really high level of disease activity in the general community.

We are still having many tens of thousands of new cases per day.

I think there's there's cause for optimism with all of the vaccines which we'll have available, but I wouldn't say we're over the hump yet.

- The vaccines, just looking back in my lifetime, these vaccines seem to be very, very effective.

Are they safe?

Do they have side effects?

What's your thoughts on them and on the effectiveness of the vaccines?

- Yeah, a year ago, I was not at all optimistic that we'd have vaccines soon.

Most vaccines, as you know, take decades to develop.

In part, that's because most infections aren't as common, as prevalent as COVID is.

They've been able to develop vaccines very quickly because there's so much disease out there.

Testing them gives us results really quickly when there's so much disease.

They've also run trials in a different way.

They've done multiple steps at the same time.

So no steps were skipped in developing these vaccines, but many more people have been enrolled.

And so I think for that reason, that's why we have vaccines so quickly.

They do have side effects, many vaccines have side effects, especially with the currently approved ones.

People do have, after their second dose, they have sore arms, they might feel ill for a day or so, but that's to be expected.

That's your immune system responding.

So I think on the whole very good news.

In addition, there's more and more evidence that they're very effective.

Israel has vaccinated many more people as a proportion of their population than we have here.

and they're seeing a great effect in declining cases.

- Can we trust them, the vaccines?

- I trust them.

There is more science behind these than any other vaccine that's been developed at this type of speed.

And it makes sense.

The way that they work, it really primes the immune system to recognize COVID and it's safer than having COVID.

So I think it's the best thing we have.

- What about the use of ibuprofen or medication before immunization?

- Right, after I warn you that you might feel ill and have some muscle soreness after a vaccine, the temptation is to pre-medicate, I think, with Tylenol or with ibuprofen.

I recommend, and the CDC recommends, that people take that if they have symptoms after the vaccine, not before.

Then it's safe.

- Dr. Anderson, thank you.

Or Dr. Thompson, sorry.

Let me get this straight.

First of all, thank you very much for being here, and at this point, thank you for the work, Andrew.

We really appreciate it.

Denny, back to you.

- All right.

Thank you so very much, Ray.

COVID-19 doesn't respect borders, and our neighbors in Wisconsin are fighting a similar battle against the virus.

So, how is Northwestern Wisconsin doing in its efforts to turn back the virus?

WDIO's Baihly Warfield has an update.

- Thanks, Denny.

In Wisconsin, many experts agree they could be vaccinating many more people if only they had more doses of vaccines.

But nonetheless, there is progress.

- So, what arm are we gonna go into?

- Left.

- Your left one?

Okay.

- Simple questions, but a big moment.

- Like a little poke.

And injection here.

And done.

- [Baihly] Dozens of people got the COVID-19 vaccine last week in Ashland.

- I think having a big vaccination clinic, there's a lot of efficiencies that can go along with that, and we can get as many people as quick as we can.

And we have then a good system in place.

And boy, the patients I've seen have been so appreciative and they think it's just gone slick.

- That was just too easy.

- [Baihly] Mass vaccination clinics are one method Wisconsin providers are using to get out every vaccine they can to eligible people.

Those include healthcare workers, residents in longterm care, fire, police, and correctional staff, and people 65 plus.

On March 1st, that will expand to include education and childcare staff and staff and residents in congregate care and others.

- We are one of several partners, but we are all limited in the amount of doses that we have.

- [Baihly] In Douglas County, they're encouraging people to start the process by calling the county vaccination hotline at 715-395-7336.

- A lot of places have electronic registration and not everybody has that capability, whether they don't have a computer, or they're not understanding that technology and that kind of thing.

- [Baihly] Whether it's by phone or online, many counties and individual clinics have waiting lists to draw from when doses are available.

- The demand is high, which is so great, but we just don't have the supplies to meet that demand.

The St Luke's Mariner Medical Clinic is encouraging its patients to get on as many lists as they can with the county, the doctor, and soon pharmacies.

- The important thing is that we work as a team to get this done.

It shouldn't just be about one organization trying to vaccinate everybody.

This is a team community effort.

- [Baihly] Overall, Wisconsin health experts have three messages they want people to hear about the vaccine.

It's safe.

- We're recommending to our patients, as many people as possible, that it's a very safe vaccine and to get it as soon as you can.

- [Baihly] Getting it might require some patience.

- Just be patient with us.

We're gonna get everybody vaccinated that we can.

- [Baihly] And if you have questions or reservations, reach out.

- So ask the question, help me understand.

- If you wanna do some research before getting the vaccine yourself, the experts I talked to say the CDC and Wisconsin Department of Health have great resources.

Back to you, Denny.

- All right, Baihly.

Thank you so much.

Wisconsin residents can sign up with their state's vaccine registry, which is launching on March the 1st.

The Wisconsin Department of Health website will be the place to find the link for registration.

And now let's send it back to Dr. Christensen, who has our next guest.

- Thank you, Denny.

The Minnesota Department of Health has a large role to play in the distribution of the vaccine and prioritizing eligibility.

Here to tell us more about that is Ellen Hill, the Northeast region district epidemiologist with the Minnesota Department of Health.

Welcome Ellen, thank you so much for being with us tonight.

- [Ellen] You're very welcome.

- Over the last few months, we've watched the immunization, the vaccination grow.

The question is how do we get it to Minnesota?

Where does it come from, and so on?

So is the federal government, then, providing our supply?

Is that how that happens?

- [Ellen] Yes, that is absolutely correct.

- And how is that working?

- You know, it's going...

It was slow to start, it still is a bit of a trickle, but the indications that we're getting is that things are starting to speed up as vaccine manufacturers are starting to get their feet under them and more vaccine manufacturers are getting ready to come on the market as well.

- Did the storm last week kind of throw a monkey wrench into all this?

- Very much so, very much so.

And unfortunately, honestly, we deal with that every winter through normal vaccine distribution that we are working on.

So this year though, it just was a bigger issue because of the sheer amount of vaccine that we're trying to push through the system right now.

- Are we back on track?

- We're getting there, we're very close.

A lot of facilities that were expecting vaccine shipments last week, they're getting them here in the next few days.

So we should have most of the vaccine from last week here in the state by the end of this week.

And still, the vaccine that we were expecting this week will be coming in this week as well.

- I've been watching the Duluth News Tribune and looking at the priority list.

Where are we on that priority list right now?

- So as was just outlined with Wisconsin, we're in a relatively similar spot.

So, we're working through what we're calling our Phase 1A groups.

Many places in the state, we're all making really good progress on that and we have been since the end of January, beginning of February, beginning of this month.

We have been working on vaccinating our educators and childcare staff and 65 plus as well.

- Who's gonna be in group 1B?

- Well, we have some indications of what to possibly expect.

CDC's Advisory Council on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, issued some guidance on that, some preliminary guidance on that earlier this year.

And so that is what we are making our preliminary plans with.

But ultimately, we work with what we've got from the CDC.

And then also we have an advisory council here in the state, too, to help even narrow it more since the vaccine amounts that we have are still really pretty small.

- Up here in Northeast Minnesota, how concerned are we with the variants?

- That definitely is factoring into some of the guidance that we're putting out there.

And definitely how watchful we are on what's happening.

We're keeping very close tabs on it.

At this point in time, we have not identified a case of the variant here in Minnesota, or in Northeastern Minnesota, but it's really just south of us.

It's not far away.

- How are the state's community vaccination sites doing right now?

- The state sponsored, the state run sites?

- [Ray] Yep.

- My understanding is that they're operating fairly well.

It's a cooperation between both state entities and also local public health agencies, some of the community agencies.

So it's going all right.

- Thank you, Ellen, so much.

We really appreciate it.

Denny, back to you.

Well, thank you very much, Doctor.

And as the vaccine rollout continues in Minnesota and Wisconsin, many of your friends and neighbors have now received at least one dose.

So what has their experience been like and how safe is it?

KGBI's Jessie Slater found out.

- Denny, it took scientists less than a year to develop a COVID-19 vaccine.

That quick turnaround leaves many worried of the potential consequences the vaccine could have given there isn't much data at this point.

However, scientists and health experts are reassuring people the vaccine is safe.

But like with any vaccine, it has the potential to come with some side effects.

We spoke to two Northlanders about their experience with the shots and hear their message to the public.

The COVID-19 vaccine rolled out to top priority workers and residents just over two months ago.

Scientists took just under a year to develop the formula aimed at saving millions of lives.

- That's the fastest it's ever happened, and I'm pretty thankful about that.

- [Jessie] But with any vaccine comes potential for a pesky downside: side-effects.

For Julie Pearce, an emergency nurse practitioner at Essentia Health, that downside hit hard.

- At about 11 hours, I started to feel a little bit of discomfort in my neck, and then it was just sort of a drop-off from there where I just started to feel fatigued.

My body ached all over.

- [Jessie] Pierce had received her second dose of the vaccine, and though she wasn't feeling 100%, she knew it was a healthy response.

- While I was experiencing it was not pleasant, I knew that my body was mounting a robust response to COVID.

- [Jessie] Dan Soula, MD at the Grand Itasca Hospital, says side effects means results.

- Side-effects after vaccines, whether it's the new COVID vaccine or any other vaccines are fairly common, and actually it's a sign that your body is building protection against COVID.

So it's a good thing.

- [Jessie] Meanwhile, John Heino from Duluth received his first dose.

- The shot didn't even hurt.

- [Jessie] And had a much different experience.

- Had zero side effects the first day.

I woke up the next morning, the injection site on the arm was a little bit sore.

- [Jessie] Even though Heino didn't have any severe side effects, Soula says that doesn't mean the vaccine isn't working.

- These vaccines work.

And whether you have side effects or not, that's not really an indication of somebody developing antibodies.

- [Jessie] The CDC and healthcare workers stress most symptoms will be mild and are nothing to be concerned about.

- You did not just get COVID.

You did not just get ill.

It is not an adverse reaction, it is an expected immune response and your body's doing its job.

- [Jessie] No matter the experience you may have, Heino says we have to work together for the better of our public health.

- This has gotta be a giant team effort.

This isn't something one person is gonna fix.

- Now, if you are experiencing severe symptoms following vaccination, you can contact your healthcare provider for further instruction.

- Always good advice, that's for sure.

Many Northlanders have been waiting patiently for their opportunity to be vaccinated.

Dr. Christensen has another guest who has more on that topic.

- Thanks, Denny.

County health departments are playing an important role in the rollout of COVID 19 vaccine.

Joining us now is Amy Westbrook, the public health division director for St. Louis County.

Amy, thank you so much for joining us tonight.

We really appreciate it.

- [Amy] Yeah, thanks for having me.

- Can you give us a little idea on what the St Louis County COVID rate looks like right now?

- Sure, our COVID rate is, we're looking pretty good with our trends.

We're about at the place where we were in mid-August, so we're seeing about 15, 16 cases reported daily in St. Louis County.

And we haven't had a death reported due to COVID infection for about 12 days, which is great to see.

- Very nice.

- Mm-hm.

- Yeah, that's great.

What is the county's role in fighting the virus?

- Well, from early on we have worked with community partners, general community and community partners, who may be at higher risk, like long-term care facilities.

Schools, we have really close working relationships especially over this last year.

Daycares.

So we can offer them education, support, guidance for them to stay as healthy as they can and then have a healthier community or a safer community against COVID.

- How do you keep people from falling through the cracks?

- Yeah, that's a good question.

We've invested a lot in reaching out to congregate care settings, individuals or settings, who are working with individuals who are experiencing homelessness or transitional housing.

We established an isolation and quarantine site specifically for individuals who didn't have a home to isolate or quarantine in.

So it's been a big focus of ours to make sure that everybody in St. Louis County has access to be able to isolate and quarantine.

- What are the biggest issues facing public health right now?

- Yeah, that's a good question, too.

Two of our primary responsibilities include preventing and controlling infectious disease and planning and responding to emergencies.

We have a very dedicated professional staff that has stepped up over this last year, but we've had to prioritize COVID over a lot of our other work, such as chronic disease prevention, substance abuse prevention, mental health promotion, and working with moms and babies and young families to have good early child development.

All of that is such important work, and we've had to put that somewhat on the back burner, which is really tough to see, but something that we have had to do because of the pandemic.

- How's your staff doing?

- They're working a lot of hours at this with the vaccine rollout.

It's actually really invigorating for a lot of the staff.

It's public health work at its core.

And so a lot of people are really enjoying getting out and vaccinating, but it's exhausting.

We've been at it for quite a while, as everybody else, so it's a lot of work.

- This is a very large county.

How are you handling the isolated rural areas?

- Sure, well, yes.

Northern St. Louis County is more rural.

It's also older, so we do pay special attention to make sure that we're getting vaccine out across our county and using not only our offices across the county, but our partners in healthcare, getting to smaller communities that may have to travel farther for healthcare or have difficulty with transportation.

So yeah, we are making sure that we're reaching out to all corners of our very large county.

(laughs) - Is testing for the virus still an important thing for us to do?

- Yes, testing is still critical in the prevention and control of the pandemic.

So, it's been a strategy for quite some time.

Testing is really important, especially now, because we're seeing, we're certainly getting vaccine out, but it's not as quickly as we want it to be.

We're not able to get vaccine because of supply into as many people who want it right now.

And kids won't be vaccinated for quite a while.

They're not eligible for the current vaccines.

So testing is still a critical strategy in prevention and control, just as masking and social distancing.

- Who should be tested?

- Well, we're actually really encouraging students to be tested, and teachers and staff, and anyone who feels like they may have been exposed to COVID.

- Amy, thank you so much.

Time goes so fast when we do this.

(Amy laughs) We really appreciate you coming in and bringing a report from the county.

- Yeah, thank you.

- Denny, back to you.

- All right, thanks again, Ray.

COVID-19 has taken a heavy toll on our region's communities of color.

Statistics show higher virus rates in the Indigenous, Black, and Latinx populations.

FOX21 took a closer look at the problem.

Here is Dan Hanger to introduce that report.

- Thanks, Denny.

The CDC remains concerned that racial and ethnic groups are facing too many obstacles when it comes to getting vaccinated.

These barriers include both geographic access to vaccines and more overall hesitancy to get the shots.

Because of factors like these, the BIPOC community has been shown to have an increased risk of getting sick and dying from COVID 19.

FOX21's Arman Rahman shows us how vaccination efforts in the Northland are being designed to help with the growing concern.

- As vaccine supplies and vaccination initiatives increase throughout the country and the Northland, efforts have started zeroing in on helping communities disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

- Our voices were heard.

The statistics show that Black and Indigenous communities are being hit the hardest by COVID.

- [Arman] At this vaccine clinic in Duluth Central Hillside, Black, Indigenous, and people of color ages 65 and older are front and center to get a shot.

- Typically, people of color, Black, Indigenous, people of color, we have people who are Asian-American.

Latinx have come in.

- [Arman] While COVID can be harmful to people across the board, the effects are often even more crippling for those underserved communities facing barriers to proper COVID information and care.

- Our death rate is 2.8 times higher than those of our white counterparts, and not just the 65 plus are being affected but people in lower age ranges as well.

- [Arman] On this first day of the vaccine clinic at the St. Mark African Episcopal Church, 30 people were registered with a backup list for when more doses become available.

- It's absolutely beautiful because this is historic, not just having vaccine clinics available in large areas, but bringing the vaccine to the community.

- [Arman] By eliminating geographical barriers, groups like Health Equity Northland and Healthy Alliances for All are pushing to continue improving vaccine access and education.

- If you look at it by zip code, there are several other ways that they're impacted.

And so it's really important that we reach out to those who have less access and to really help get rid of some of those barriers to getting the vaccine.

- [Arman] As arms of all colors get injected with the medicine, organizers hope the effort can also continue injecting remedies to keep improving health inequity for the area's Black, Indigenous, and people of color.

- We're speaking up and we're making ourselves visible so that we can make sure that our community stays healthy.

- Health Equity Northland and St. Louis County plan to have many more of these focused vaccine clinics.

People of color ages 65 and older can add themselves to a mailing list to be part of these clinics by visiting the Health Equity Northland website.

Denny, back to you.

- Thank you, Dan.

Those are certainly some eye-opening statistics and they do warrant further discussion.

And so Dr. Ray Christensen has our next guest with more on the racial imbalance of the pandemic.

- Thanks Denny.

That report from FOX21 is indeed troubling.

Joining us with more is Olihe Okoro, assistant professor at the UMD College of Pharmacy, representing Healthy Alliances Matter.

Thank you so much for being with us tonight.

We really appreciate it.

- [Olihe] Thanks for having me.

- We want you, if you could tell us just a little bit about Health Equity Northland and what their mission and what your mission is.

- Yeah, so the Health Equity Northland is, it's really a coalition of different partners and agencies that have come together to address COVID, not just in the black community, but it's beneficial to anybody else.

So it came out of an assessment that we did with the community and community members.

We're really talking about having a specific place where they could get information that they could actually trust, because there was just so much information people were not sure what was true, what wasn't true.

And so it came from that.

And so we came together and put up that website, Health Equity Northland, where we can have information updates, information so that community members can actually go to the site.

It's interactive.

They can ask questions and we'll get back to whoever wants to know, whether it's about the virus, about the vaccine.

So it becomes like a hub of information not just for the African heritage community, but it's useful for anybody who actually just wants to know what information may be about, where vaccination is happening, testing.

So that's what it really is.

It's kind of like a hub for information.

- I'm really, really proud of the College of Pharmacy and the work that they've done with vaccinations and immunizations, and really appreciate the work that their students have done, too.

How involved are you in vaccinating community members?

- I'm not directly involved, but I do work with Healthy Alliances Matter.

And Healthy Alliances Matter, it's a community-based organization that's also part of the Health Equity Northland coalition.

And they have been, because the CEO, the founder and members that work there, they are from the community, so they have been responding to vaccination using a very culturally rooted approach, I would call it.

So they've been very engaged.

It's involved having actually community coordinators continuing to do outreach.

They're making phone calls, they are visiting businesses, they are visiting grassroots organizations that are owned by and run by black persons and other persons of color.

So they're doing a lot of one-on-one engagement to understand what are the barriers for people to get vaccinated.

Do they have the right information?

Can they connect them to the right information so that they can actually get vaccinated?

And for those that have questions, to be able to respond to those questions - How has COVID affected the African-American community in our region?

- I would say that the impact has really been very nuanced, very complex because it has a lot to do with social determinants and the structural inequities that were already existing even before COVID.

So it's not that the presence of African heritage, it's not that they are necessarily more susceptible to COVID than anybody else, but here in this region, who are the persons who are more likely to be homeless?

Who are the persons that are more likely to have issues with housing or are in low income jobs that are front-facing?

Who is more likely to be taking public transportation?

Who is more likely to lose their job or just quit their job because they need to stay home?

They don't have childcare.

And there's just all this nuances.

So I would say the impact has been social, the impact has been economical.

People have lost jobs, people have lost their housing.

It's also impacted mental wellbeing, because not just the African heritage community, communities of color generally have a more communal sense.

So community tribes when community bonds together, and so without having those social gatherings and interactions, that would usually have, that has really taken a toll.

So you have things like depression and anxiety escalating.

Even people who were previously diagnosed with maybe some mental health conditions, you have that escalating actually.

- In 30 seconds, do they trust the message?

- Ah.

(laughs) Well, there is the historical distrust.

So what I would say is what committee has said it.

It's key who they hear the message from, who they hear the message from.

So it's really about trusting the source of the message and not really so much about the science itself.

So who gives them the message matters very much.

- Thank you, Olihe.

This was very informative.

I appreciate it very much.

Denny, back to you.

- All right, thank you very much, doctor.

If you're one of the lucky folks who have received both doses of the vaccine, you may be wondering what's next.

As CBS 3 anchor Kristen Vake found out, the answer is complicated.

- Denny, in the last year we've all adapted into what has become our new normal, but now with vaccines being distributed, we're looking ahead to life after the pandemic.

We heard from an Iron Range doctor who broke down the do's and don'ts to follow once you've received the vaccine.

- I think there's good reason to have a positive outlook, to be optimistic.

- [Kristen] Dr. Pete Olsen of Fairview Range in Hibbing has been on the front lines of the pandemic.

He says he's feeling hopeful now that vaccines are available, but once you get the shot, there are still precautions you should take.

At the top of so many people's lists is visiting loved ones.

- We don't know if you can still spread the disease even if you're asymptomatic after receiving the vaccine.

And so as much as you wanna see your loved ones, it's so important to recognize that when you get a vaccine, it's not just for you, it's for others.

- As experts study the effectiveness of the vaccine, Dr. Olsen answered some common questions asked by those who receive it.

Once you're vaccinated, do you still have to wear a mask?

- Yeah, keep that mask on.

Even as people are seeing higher and higher rates of vaccination across the country, we wanna be careful that we're not spreading illness or disease to people who have not been vaccinated.

- Once you're vaccinated, should you still use precaution when traveling?

- I think so.

Although all of us would love to hang out on a beach somewhere and go somewhere warm, I think it's important to recognize that we wanna not be spreading disease or increasing the rates of spread until we know that this COVID vaccine's been effective in inducing herd immunity.

- The traditional handshake.

Does it need to be retired post-pandemic?

- Oh boy, I miss the handshake.

This is how we connect.

And even in many different countries, it's a connection point.

The elbow bump just doesn't feel the same, Kristen.

When it's time and we see the rates of COVID have dropped, I'm very hopeful it will return, but I'll certainly be washing my hands just as many times to make sure that I don't spread disease to anyone else, too.

- [Kristen] As we wait to drop the masks, give a hug, and visit loved ones.

Dr. Olsen says he believes it won't be too long before we can get back to doing the things we love most.

- I think we do have a new normal, yeah.

It's gonna take some months time, maybe a year, but I think we're gonna see live music.

I think we're gonna see restaurants opening to their full capacity.

I think we'll be out socializing in parks with friends.

I don't think it's gonna be so restrictive.

I think it's gonna be filled with opportunity and new technology to help us live fuller lives in that new normal.

- As phases of who can get the vaccine continue to expand, you may be in a situation where some people in your family might be vaccinated and some might not.

Dr. Olsen said it's best to wait to get together until everyone is vaccinated, and even then you should still continue to follow recommendations from health experts.

- Thank you, Kristen.

So there is reason for optimism, but we all have to be patient and continue to follow the guidelines to keep everyone healthy.

Local community hospitals have been in the forefront of efforts to help those stricken with the virus.

Dr. Christensen has more on that now with another guest.

- Thanks, Denny.

As a rural physician, critical access hospitals, not only in this region but across the United States, are the front line of defense for our rural citizens against whatever happens in medicine.

And it's really great tonight that we have Rick Breuer here from Community Memorial Hospital in Cloquet.

Rick has been a champion for the critical access hospitals and for rural health for a long time.

Rick, thank you so much for joining us this evening.

- [Rick] Thanks for having me.

- What is, just to lay the background, what is a critical access hospital?

Give us a little primmer there real quick.

- Sure, critical access hospitals were actually formed out of the Balanced Budget Act back in the nineties.

They are rural hospitals, small hospitals that, to help them survive, they're paid a little bit differently.

They follow most of the same rules that all the other hospitals do, but it's a special payment and service program that's designed to help keep rural hospitals afloat.

- So you you're out here just not too far from Duluth, but you're out in the rural area.

How has COVID affected your hospital?

Your gathering area's quite large.

- It really is.

We think of ourselves as serving most of Carlton County, extends a little bit outside the borders and doesn't cover all of it, but for the most part that's a good proxy for our service area.

When the first wave hit this spring, I think it gave us all a false sense of security.

It wasn't much of a wave up in Northeastern Minnesota.

And so a lot of people went out and enjoyed their Minnesota summers.

And when we got hit in this part of the state, we got hit this fall, of all of the...

There's over 70 critical access hospitals in Minnesota.

There was none that served more patients during this wave than Community Memorial.

We had more COVID patients in our hospital than hospitals twice our size.

So we understand the gravity of it through the hospital, through the nursing home.

We saw the effects on the community and on the people working there, the stress that it put them under having to take care of two or three times as many people as they normally do, and much, much sicker people than they normally do.

- How did your staff handle the stress?

- I consider them all heroes.

They can do things I can't do.

You're trained to do things I can't do.

My job is to try to give them the tools they need, and I couldn't be prouder of them.

I am amazed.

I think of them as superhuman, but then you see them after they're done with the patient care, and I worry about in the days and weeks and months after this is done, the post-traumatic stress that these people, what they have gone through, and almost without exception when we said, "Hey, we need you to do way more than we've ever asked you to do here," they jump up.

They're scared, they admit they're scared, but we give them the tools they need and they've jumped into areas they haven't worked in for years, sometimes beyond that.

And they've really been amazing.

- This really required an awful lot of planning.

How did that work in your hospital?

Because it really required your medical staff, your nursing staff, everybody to pull this together, and you.

- It really did.

We put together, our first work group was more of a task force.

We kind of morphed into an incident command structure pretty quickly.

And because we're smaller, I think about Lake Superior and you see the big tankers, the big liners that go through there.

Trying to steer one of those is a little more difficult.

We're more like the sailboats that they don't even have to raise the bridge for.

We're pretty nimble.

And so we got a group together pretty fast and we were able to start tackling problems pretty fast.

I think we've been out on the forefront, very progressive.

We got rules in place.

We had the best respirators money could buy.

Others were fighting over N95s, and we had our folks in half-face respirators, which are N100 basically, and reusable, cleanable.

You couldn't find people better protected than our folks.

And I credit all the folks around me.

That wasn't me.

That was the team that we have.

And they put it together remarkably fast.

- Team requires all of you.

How are the COVID numbers going in your area right now?

- It's come down quite a bit, and we're grateful for that.

So we're catching our breath a little bit.

We're vaccinating like crazy.

And we're hoping as some people have talked about, that race against time, that if another wave comes, when another wave comes, if it's what we know, if it's variants, that we'll already have enough people vaccinated, that's gonna offer us some protection.

But we've learned so much about how to treat the disease that we have all the tools in our tool belt that other larger hospitals have.

So we feel very well-equipped to serve our community, which is what we've always done - In the last minute or so, what are your concerns going forward at this point?

- I worry about our workforce, as I said.

I worry about the prevalence of other disease.

I worry about delayed cancer diagnoses.

I worry about, we have people sitting in our hospital beds because they stayed away from their doctors 'cause they were afraid.

They'll walk into Walmart but they're afraid to go to their clinic.

And I'm pleading people, go keep your healthcare appointments because we have folks suffering because they put it off too long.

So I worry about things like that as much as COVID itself.

- Denny, thank you so much for... Or Rick, thank you so much for coming in tonight.

Really appreciate your advice and your knowledge.

Denny, back to you.

- Yeah, what a story Rick has.

Thank you both very much.

Minnesotans have expanded access to COVID-19 vaccinations thanks to the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program that launched earlier this month.

Locally, the Hermantown and Cloquet Walmart stores, along with Sam's Club in Hermantown and Thrifty White white in Cloquet are participating in the first phase of the program.

In the first week alone, Thrifty White administered 300 doses of the Moderna vaccine in folks 65 and over who registered for appointments online.

Duluth News Tribune reporters Samantha Erkkila and Andee Erickson have more on this story.

- We're in a grocery store, so we'd go to the staff there who need vaccines, and we're giving them some of the excess doses that would otherwise be wasted.

And we've found if even if go and cancel it, if there's a no show, we open up the spot, it gets filled up.

Somebody goes online and picks it up.

Or we go from our list and make the dose available to somebody else who's looking for it.

So, it's been pretty smooth and we really haven't had any waste.

- There's no question that the local pharmacies, be they independent pharmacies, pharmacies associated with healthcare systems, are going to be and are effective in getting the vaccines out to the community.

- And I think because patients are used to getting their flu vaccine at the pharmacy, we have patients that get their shingles, their pneumonia.

I mean, they're used to coming to us to get the vaccine.

- These local pharmacies, they would love to be able to vaccinate the public widely and be able to plan for it.

But they're left without the ability to plan because of the scarcity and the distribution to them on a week-to-week basis is determined by coalitions that decide how much vaccine is left.

They'll go to those local pharmacies, and then they will ask them to focus on specific communities and populations, and they are doing that rapidly.

So they're very effective in carrying out the vaccinations, but what they're needing is more of them.

And of course the whole country and world is waiting for that.

- I will tell you that our students started contacting me in June saying, "How can we help?"

And for the next several months, I had to keep telling them to stay tuned (laughs) because we didn't know.

And so now it's showtime.

- We really utilize our technicians and our interns for things that go on or that are required for the success of the clinic behind closed doors.

So I feel like the clinic part of administering the vaccine is just a small fraction of what it actually takes for the whole process to roll out.

- Here in the first two weeks of February, we have had students go as far south as Rochester to help.

And our students have helped with the vaccination efforts for more than 1300 Minnesotans.

- We get them in this room and turn it over to them.

They work with our technicians and then the pharmacists at the location can just go about their regular days.

- We still have to do our clinical services.

We still have to care for our patients.

Pharmacists are really finding a way to get this to work because they really want to make this work and get patients vaccinated.

- Everyone who helps out in the clinic, we sign up to help out on top of all our FTE.

And I do it because it brings me hope, hope that in this pandemic, and it's been a really long year, that maybe we can go back to some semblance of normal sometime soon.

- We've been waiting for this for a long time.

And even though it adds a little extra stress and busyness to the workday, you feel good about it.

And so we're happy to be doing it.

- Both of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have specific protocols for handling and preserving before they are administered.

Dr. Ray Christensen has a guest now who has more on that topic.

Ray.

- Thanks, Denny.

The Pfizer vaccine in particular needs extremely cold storage temperatures and it has to be administered in a timely manner once it is out of the freezer.

Here to tell us more about the logistics of delivering the vaccine is Roseann Hines, a pharmacist and Essentia's senior manager for medication use management.

Thank you so much for being with us this evening.

- [Roseann] Thank you for having me.

- We'd like you to talk maybe just a little bit more, we kinda covered this a little bit, but there's specific protocols for the vaccines.

Can you tell us a little bit about how Essentia handles that and how you go about taking care of these so that they're appropriate?

- Sure, so the Pfizer vaccine specifically needs that ultra cold storage, and so we have these specific freezers that have basically dry ice temperatures for the vaccine.

Once it is removed from the freezer, we have five days to administer it when stored at refrigerator temperatures, and the vaccines have six hours after they come to room temperature.

The Moderna has a little bit longer with 30 days after it is out of the freezer, but very short timelines compared to our traditional medication supplies.

- How is the supply chain working for you?

- It's a little bit challenging, as with everything within the COVID vaccine.

So typically we find out about a week, not even a week before, what our allocation of vaccine would be.

It comes into our pharmacy and then our distribution centers then have to distribute the supply throughout our entire organization.

And so it's a lot of time and coordination and teamwork on all parts.

- What kind of protocols do you have for a vaccine administration?

- Sure, we have standing orders for all of our locations for the vaccine administration.

Our sites really focus on appointment times and very coordinated amounts that pair with the doses that we have to ensure that we don't waste and use every supply that we take out of that freezer.

- So have you commented about the little bit that's left?

Are doses being wasted there, or are you guys finding a way to use those?

- I'm proud to say we have wasted very, very few doses and when they are, usually it's an accidental like a vial drop and not an unused portion.

So the Pfizer vials, for example, have been labeled as a five dose vial, but we typically are able to get six or seven doses out of them.

The FDA and state have guided us to take every usable dose out of the vial, and so we do that and we work really hard to make sure we use that and get that in someone's arm and not waste that precious resource.

- How do you notify people if you have an extra dose?

- Each system does it a little bit different.

At Essentia Health, we have a wait list, and so we have those that have indicated on our wait list that they would be able to come to our clinic within 15 minutes based on the location.

And at that end of the day, when we know we're gonna have a few extra doses, or one or two, whatever, we start making those phone calls for the wait list individuals to come in and receive those doses.

- So should people start showing up at your place just in case they might get called?

- No, we have the wait list of those individuals that are prioritized through the state and CDC guidance, and so we wanna make sure we're following the rules around that.

And so we would ask if you were interested in being on that wait list, you would identify that through the MyChart at Essentia, or typically with any of those other phone systems you can identify that you'd be interested to come through an end-of-day process depending on the organization.

- So going forward, it sounds like we might have some new vaccines available.

Do you anticipate delivery problems in the coming weeks and months?

- I think any time you introduce a new product into the mix, you always have that risk of medication safety.

And so we do have safety protocols, as with any other medication when you have multiple products available, to ensure a safe mixing, administration, and documentation of those agents.

- You've had the chance to see how several of these work.

Is there a difference in side effects or are they fairly similar?

- I've seen it pretty similar across the board.

I think individuals are really what determine the side effect and not necessarily that vaccine.

So both the Pfizer and Moderna have had similar side effect profiles and have really affected individuals a little bit differently.

For example, my husband had a sore arm and I felt like crud for about a day, but that's better than COVID.

(laughs) - Yeah, that's good.

The immunizations going forward, as you look at these, is the efficacy pretty much the same in all of them as far as the coverage?

Which is really impressive, by the way.

- It's amazingly impressive, the efficacy rates.

So both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have about a 95% effectiveness rate after two doses.

You need the full two doses to be effective, and so that second dose for Pfizer is at day 21 and Moderna is at day 28.

But the CDC has provided guidance that it's safe and effective to receive those second doses up to 42 days after the first dose, which is good in light of some of the weather hiccups and those other things mentioned earlier on the program.

- Very good, thank you.

Thank you so much.

I wanna thank you very much for being here, too, today, this evening.

Your information is very, very helpful, Roseann, and thank you so much.

- Thank you.

Denny, back to you.

- Oh, very fine.

Thank you very much, Dr. Christensen.

The logistics of handling the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines depends on the healthcare providers administering the doses.

FOX21's Dan Hanger has more on those procedures.

- Thanks, Denny.

As area healthcare systems and public health officials try to bring as many COVID vaccine doses as possible to the Northland, FOX21's CJ Baumgartner takes a closer look at the complex process that goes into getting the vaccine supplies here.

- Right now, there are two COVID-19 vaccines coming from Medina and Pfizer.

And while it may seem simple, there's plenty of work being done to give Northlanders the shot.

Healthcare systems and public health officials in the Northland have to keep the limited doses they receive in pristine condition.

- We really have to make sure that we coordinate things well and ensure that we use all of those vaccines and not waste any.

- [CJ] Shipments of the vaccine come in around Tuesday every week, but how many doses each hospital and county get are decided by the Minnesota Department of Health in coordination with the CDC.

While the vaccine is on the move, it needs to be kept frozen to prevent it from spoiling.

- We take it where we go and we treat it like gold.

- [CJ] St. Louis County Public Health tries to have the Moderna vaccine in people's arms within 72 hours once they thaw out a batch.

- We've got a great training system set up through the county, and any of our volunteers get the same training as well so everyone is educated on the process.

- [CJ] Batches are kept inside specialized coolers to keep doses between 36 and 46 degrees Fahrenheit, with temperature gauges and data loggers which can alert officials if it gets too hot or cold.

- Once we start to use it, we can have it come to room temperature and then if it sits, we have 12 hours.

Once we puncture it and start to use it, we have six hours to use it.

And we really aim to not waste a dose.

- [CJ] The Pfizer vaccine needs to be kept even colder, which is why it's only being sent to facilities with ultra low freezers like at Essentia Health's Drug Distribution Center.

- This is a special freezer that we had to purchase throughout our system because we knew we were gonna see this Pfizer vaccine.

And it actually stores that temperature of the vaccine vials at a -100 degrees below zero Fahrenheit.

- [CJ] Doses are then given out at Essentia's vaccination clinic at their Miller Hill Mall location, but it needs to be used up within five days once it's thawed out.

With almost two months of vaccinations and 41,000 doses given out, those at Essentia believe they're getting into a groove with their vaccination process.

- We're kind of at the point now where I think we've figured out the mechanism that we need to have in place.

Now we just need more vaccine.

It's as simple as that.

- Area hospitals and County health departments are urging patience from everybody as they continue rolling out the vaccine as fast as they can.

Back to you, Denny.

- All right, Dan, thank you.

On the Iron Range and other areas outside of Duluth, hospitals and clinic systems are doing their part to get vaccines into the arms of Northlanders.

Grand Itasca Clinic and Hospital has administered over 2100 doses and is currently vaccinating patients 75 years and older.

Fairview Range in the Hibbing area has given more than 1300 shots so far.

On Tuesday, we talked with Fairview Mesaba Clinic family medicine physician Amanda McDonald about the most common vaccine questions.

- We get a lot of questions about how to sign up for vaccines.

and we get phone calls, MyChart messages.

And currently there's two ways that our patients who are eligible, again that 75 and older and the healthcare workers, so there's two ways that they can sign up.

One is through our online access, which is our MyChart.

It's a patient portal.

So some patients are already enrolled.

If you're not already enrolled, you can certainly do so.

The other way to sign up would be just directly calling the clinic, and that number is 218-362-6937.

And that's number you can call every week starting Tuesday mornings at 8:00 a.m. What I've been telling patients is in general, there's very few contraindications to getting the vaccine.

If you had an allergic reaction to the first dose, you may not choose to get the second dose, but in general, things like egg allergies, environmental allergies, having an autoimmune disorder, something like that, those are not contraindications.

So in general, it is a safe and efficacious vaccine.

We're all suffering from COVID fatigue, and so it's getting really difficult to follow all those rules, but I think it's important for people to remember that the vaccine, I'm really excited about it, it does help keep us safe, it does help prevent the illness, but it's not 100%, it's roughly 95% or so effective.

And so reasons for people to continue practicing those guidelines are to prevent spreading the illness to someone else.

If you've been vaccinated, you may be less likely to get a severe infection, but you may be what's called an asymptomatic carrier where you could be carrying the virus unknowingly and spreading it to someone else.

So we really wanna keep everyone safe and prevent the spread.

And the other thing I would say is that we don't know how long the immunity lasts, so there's gonna be more information coming out on that as there's more studies.

But yeah, keeping that all in mind.

There's some talk about will we as healthcare providers be in masks for the rest of our careers.

And I sure hope not, though I think that if there are times such as peak flu season, maybe that's gonna be a good, safe thing to do that we will continue some of these precautions in certain situations.

And I think there'll be more to come as we learn about the vaccine and if it will need a seasonal booster, or how long the immunity will last so that we can know.

And just having the kids back in school, seeing how that plays out as well.

- And so we hope you have found tonight's program helpful as we strive for an end to this pandemic.

If you're still waiting to get vaccinated, there are five places currently administering the vaccines.

They include hospitals, county public health departments, tribal government, pharmacies, and the state's community vaccination sites.

For more information on vaccines, we have provided a link on our website, wdse.org/findinganswers.

A big thank you to all our health providers and community partners, St. Louis County, Essentia Health, St. Luke's, Fairview Range, and Grand Itasca Clinic and Hospital, and to the media partners that provided stories, FOX21, CBS 3, WDIO, KBJR, and the Duluth News Tribune.

And finally, we want to wish all of you watching good health and a reminder to stay the course and help end this pandemic.

For Dr. Ray Christensen and the crew here at WDSE WRPT, I'm Dennis Anderson.

Thank you for watching and be kind.

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