‘LITTLE BIT SAFER’
Coronavirus vaccine rolls out for elder population of Navajo Nation
FORT DEFIANCE – Since the pandemic hit the Navajo Nation, Mary Nez hasn’t been able to be with her children or grandchildren and she misses them.
“It’s really hard,” Nez, 62, said. “I want to go see my family, but I can’t.”
As the caretaker of her older brother, Paul Wauneka, 76, she monitors both their movements.
“We can’t really go anywhere (and) we don’t go visit anywhere else,” she said.
Nez said she makes sure her brother has everything he needs so he doesn’t have to leave his hogan in Window Rock.
“If he needs anything I go shop for him,” she said. “I really don’t want him out there.”
When Wauneka heard an advertisement on the radio about a COVID-19 vaccine event in their community, he told his sister he wanted to go. She agreed.
“I woke up early for this,” she said
from the driver’s seat of her silver GMC truck. Nez and her brother got in line around 8:30 a.m. for a drive-thru vaccine event held at Tséhootsooí Medical Center in Fort Defiance on Friday.
It was a two-day event hosted on Thursday and Friday in the parking lot of the medical center. The event was for patients 75 and older, plus one adult caregiver.
Because Nez and Wauneka are both high-risk individuals, they felt it was best to try to get vaccinated. They succeeded.
Nez pulled her truck into the vaccine area as several health care workers approached. They took the required paperwork, walked back to the vaccine station, and took two doses from a dark blue ice chest.
With the truck window rolled down and her gray shirt sleeve rolled up, Nez got her first shot of the COVID-19 vaccine. She and Wauneka had waited in line for about three hours.
Wauneka said it felt like getting a flu shot, and Nez agreed.
“I feel a little bit safer,” Nez said. “But I still have to keep my guard up.”
Nez admits she was nervous about it and she hopes she won’t experience any major side effects, but overall, she feels it’s worth it.
“Keeping ourselves safe is worth it and I hope this virus will go away,” she said.
Nez and Wauneka will get their second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine in February.
Drive-thru COVID-19 vaccine event
This was the first large community vaccination event held by the hospital, a community based facility operated by the Fort Defiance Indian Hospital Board, Inc. It provides health care services on the Navajo Nation under a federal 638 contract.
“We wanted to focus on our elder population (who are) some of the most vulnerable population,” said Jarom Prows, the director of support services and incident commander for the COVID-19 vaccine rollout at TMC.
“They hold a lot of our stories and our teachings here for the Navajo people,” Prows said. “We thought it was paramount to get them vaccinated.”
Prows said the elder population is more susceptible to catching COVID-19, so ensuring they get vaccinated first provides them an extra layer of protection.
They chose to offer it to elders age 75 and older first so they could control the number of vaccine doses administered.
“We’re still at that limited doses of vaccine,” Prows said. “As they become more available we’ll be able to open it up more.”
The drive-thru events drew a massive response. Both reached capacity about three hours after they started. The hospital allotted 600 doses for Thursday’s event and ended up giving 699. On Friday, officials capped it at 600 doses.
The hospital set up the operation so traffic wouldn’t hinder access to the hospital for patients who weren’t waiting for the vaccine. There was one entrance and exit for patients getting the vaccine.
“Our elder population here on Navajo ... they’re very dear to us, so we’re happy to provide this service.”
Leah Earl-Begay
Chief of Healthy Living & Outreach at Tséhootsooí Medical Center
Traffic was directed behind the hospital, then around the wellness center for patient registration. Once patients were registered, they were directed toward the injection area, which was the parking lot in front of the clinic.
Drivers were then directed through the parking lot and stopped in front of injection stations for health care workers to collect information and administer the vaccine.
Five injection stations were set up for the event, and each was operated by two registered nurses who gave the injections and supported clinical staff, said Leah Earl-Begay, a registered nurse and the chief of Healthy Living & Outreach at TMC.
Once the patient’s paperwork was reviewed and approved, the nurses gave the injections, returned to the station and disposed of the supplies, Earl-Begay said. Patients were then routed to a waiting area to be monitored for 15 minutes.
She said it was really touching to see elders coming through to be vaccinated and “I think that’s what makes all of this worth it.”
“Our elder population here on Navajo ... they’re very dear to us, so we’re happy to provide this service,” she added.
As a nurse, she’s used to administering vaccinations. Knowing the COVID-19 vaccine is available came as a relief. “I just want to vaccinate everyone immediately,” she said.
People started lining up for the event at TMC before sunrise, Prows said, even though it didn’t start until 9 a.m.
He said it’s been great, especially how elders have been thanking the health staff.
“One lady in particular, she rolled down her window and grabbed my hand saying: ‘Thank you Shí yázhí, Thank you Shí yázhí,’ ” he said. “She had tears coming down her eyes because they want it as much as anybody else and they understand the importance of it.” Shí yázhí means “my child” in Navajo.
By hosting a large vaccine event, TMC was able to reach masses of people who desperately need the vaccine, said Aaron Price, chief of hospital medicine.
“It’s a long way coming from where we were about a year ago when we hadn’t anticipated that the pandemic was going to be to this proportion,” Price said.
Having been on the front lines since last year, Price said “it does my heart well to see our elders and our vulnerable populations getting the vaccine.”
TMC is in the early stages of Phase 1B in the Navajo Nation COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution Plan, which includes high-risk patients, patients 65 and older, adults in congregate settings, first responders, spiritual leaders, frontline essential workers, essential infrastructure and essential businesses.
When more vaccines become available, the hospital plans to expand its vaccine distribution to other Phase 1B populations. More vaccine events are being planned for patients who are 65 and older or who are considered high-risk.
Prows said he wants the general public to know that it is important to get vaccinated and is safe. He understands there is hesitation about the new vaccine because it was developed quickly.
“The science behind the way that this vaccine works has been in development for years already,” he said. “This is a huge step to helping us as a society get back to some sort of normalcy.”
Prows said TMC received a little over 4,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine and is down to about 2,000 doses.
He wants the public to be patient with the hospital because of the limited number of doses at the clinic.
“We’re doing our best,” he said. “Once we get them, we’re getting them out there.”
The hospital is not taking individual COVID-19 vaccine appointments. For COVID-19 specific questions, TMC has a COVID-19 Hotline at 928-729-3435.
COVID-19 vaccines on the Navajo Nation
Distribution of COVID-19 vaccines on the Navajo Nation continues under a plan led by the Navajo Nation Department of Health in collaboration with the Indian Health Service and tribal health organizations.
A total of 26,455 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech and the Moderna vaccines have been distributed by the federal government to health care facilities on and near the Navajo Nation, according to data from the department of health.
As of Jan. 15, a total of 20,398 doses have been administered, according to the data.
Jill Jim, the tribe’s health department director, said the tribe’s population is estimated at 186,000, so more than 200,000 doses are needed.
“We have not received enough,” Jim said in an online town hall on Jan. 14.
Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses per person and they are to be taken within 21 to 28 days of each other to protect against infection. Some 3,607 people have received two doses as of Jan. 15, according to the health department.
The Navajo Nation is still under a stay-at-home lockdown and a 57-hour weekend lockdown order until Jan. 25.