“I do not think this will increase the health care force. It will help to maintain it, and it will also take a lot, or some of the amazing stress that they are under as they take care of COVID patients. It will help them so that they feel a little bit more sure about not bringing this home to their family,” said Dr. Irene Agostini, UNM Hospital Chief Medical Officer.
Pending FDA approval, 17,550 vaccine doses will come to New Mexico in a little more than a week. The answer to when others can expect the vaccine in still in the works. In the meantime, researchers at Los Alamos National Labs are working to map out the path.
“This project is about using mathematical models and computation simulations to understand how to distribute the vaccine,” said Sara Del Valle, a mathematical epidemiologist at LANL.
Scientists like Del Valle are working to identify the most effective and efficient way to stop the spread with a vaccine.
“For example, we know that we’re going to target health care workers first, and our model includes the careers of people, their demographics and age and gender and where they live, so we can understand how, for example, vaccinating healthcare workers first should impact risk in the coming months,” said Carrie Manore, an apple mathematician at LANL.
The vaccine is expected to take four to six weeks for its protections to fully kick in. Social distancing, masks, and public health orders will still remain in place.
“If we’re able to roll out this vaccine successfully to a majority of people in the United States, then by the summer we could potentially be moving back toward normal activities, which would be great,” Manore said.
