Fire chief advocates for EMS workers
hospitals and health clinics across the state receive dosages of the coronavirus vaccine, Greenfield Fire Chief Jon Cohn doesn't want his department to be forgotten.
“We are health care,” Cohn said. “Just because we don't work at a hospital, we don't work in a clinic, we are part of the health care system.”
After Advocate Aurora Health vaccinated roughly 17,000 employees, the Greenfield Fire Department sent out a tweet saying none of its emergency medical service workers had been vaccinated, adding “our members are on the frontlines, truly working in the field, non-ideal conditions, transporting COVID patients in small ambulance spaces.”
Cohn said he is not taking a shot at health care workers who have received the vaccine, but reminding those with the authority to prioritize who gets the vaccine to think about EMS workers.
“Unfortunately, at times, we're seen as the ambulance drivers,” Cohn said. “Our paramedics are providing emergency room level care in somebody's living room, in somebody's driveway, on the side of the road, in a shopping mall. They're bringing the emergency room to those places in our community.”
Cohn, who is also president of the Milwaukee County Association of Fire Chiefs, said other departments in the state “are struggling to get vaccinated as well.”
“It's a more widespread problem than just Greenfield,” Cohn said.
Fire departments like Greenfield's are a priority but the local health departments are in charge of distributing the vaccine to them, according to Dr. Ben Weston, medical services director for Milwaukee County's Office of Emergency Management. And many of those municipalities have not yet received the vaccines.
“Unlike other health providers, they frequently operate in confined and uncontrolled environments with patients known or suspected to be COVIDpositive,” Weston said in a virtual press conference this week.
They are in the group slated to receive the initial COVID-19 vaccine for good reason, he said, calling firefighter EMTs and paramedics “our most frontline of frontline providers.”
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett said the city, which was recently designated as a vaccinator, is in the process of subAs mitting paperwork to the state to request a specific number of vaccinations. The city hopes it will receive that permission as soon as late this week.
The city at this point does not anticipate needing to purchase additional equipment, including specialized freezers, to store the vaccine, Barrett said.
“We do have the capacity, and we're also looking at other potential places if we need additional storage locations,” he said.
Despite problems receiving the vaccine directly, Cohn said health clinics that have extra doses have been reaching out to the department to get them the vaccine.
Cohn said the details of receiving the vaccine from those clinics are still being worked out.
The pandemic has had an impact on the department.
Cohn said some members have gotten sick or their family members have gotten sick, which has caused short staffing.
“It's been a complete staffing carousel,” Cohn said. “It's a daily ongoing discussion between the fire department, our public health department and our HR as to how we're going to approach the next day or couple of days for staffing.”