Flu Season Will Be a Test Run for the U.S.’s Biggest-Ever Vaccine Campaign – By John Tozzi and Angelica LaVito (Bloomberg) / Aug 18 2020
Mobile vans, vaccine strike teams and drive-throughs will take the place of traditional tactics to get shots to the public
This fall, the U.S. will need to vaccinate huge numbers of Americans in the middle of a public-health crisis. It will also be a valuable dry run should a coronavirus shot arrive months later.
The annual U.S. flu vaccine campaign has been cast into disarray by Covid-19, with people staying away from pharmacies, schools, offices, hospitals and other places where they typically get their shots. But with fears of a flu surge colliding with the coronavirus pandemic, health authorities are looking at how one vaccine effort can inform the other.
In Denver, public-health officials are trying to increase the number of adults who get the flu vaccine this year to 65% from 45%. To do it, they’re setting up “strike teams” that can go from school to school giving vaccines, vans that can stop at construction sites and inoculate workers, and doing outreach to hard-to-reach communities.
“This whole model that we’re building can then be moved into Covid,” said Judith Shlay a physician and associate director at Denver Public Health.
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