On the start line for shots
A year into the coronavirus pandemic, Americans are painfully aware that overcoming the scourge is a marathon, not a sprint. Enter Dave McGillivray, who knows a thing or two about endurance events – and logistics.
The race director of the Boston Marathon has been tapped by the state of Massachusetts to run mass vaccination operations at Gillette Stadium and Fenway Park.
Idled at his day job by the pandemic, he’s part of an emerging group of event organisers and other unconventional logistics experts who are using their skills to help the nation vaccinate as many people against Covid-19 as possible.
‘‘It’s amazing how our event management skill set can be applied to running a massive vaccination site,’’ said McGillivray, who has been directing the marathon for more than three decades.
The push for creative workarounds comes as virus cases surge nationwide, lines grow at testing and vaccination sites, and tempers flare as government websites crash beneath the digital weight of millions desperately seeking appointments.
Likening it to a ‘‘wartime effort’’, President Joe Biden announced this week that the US is ramping up deliveries to hardpressed states, and expects to provide enough doses to vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of the northern summer.
In Washington state, Starbucks and Amazon are being pressed into service for vaccination operations and logistics support, and a union representing food and commercial workers is helping to staff the effort.
In California, Disneyland is hosting a mass vaccination effort, as is Six Flags Magic Mountain, about 100 kilometres north.
After a computer glitch at a testing site in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina, caused a traffic jam, the mayor called a local Chick-fil-A fast food outlet manager for help, hoping that his experience in managing drivethrough situations might help. It did – manager Jerry Walkowiak sorted it out, and got the waiting time down from an hour to 15 minutes.
Other states are looking into having dentists, optometrists and even veterinarians help get shots into people’s arms.
Anna Nagurney, a professor of information management at the University of MassachusettsAmherst and an expert on logistics, says it makes sense to consider people such as concert promoters and even wedding planners who are accustomed to multi-tasking and meeting tight deadlines.
‘‘It’s a matter of people flow and congestion management and spacing out and security,’’ Nagurney said. ‘‘It’s a win-win situation for everyone.’’
There’s precedence, of course, for strange bedfellows in a national crisis. During World War II, American toymakers manufactured parts for military aircraft. More atypical partnerships are likely now that Biden
has invoked the Defence Production Act, a 1950 law that gives the president broad authority to mobilise the resources and production of private companies.
Tapping unconventional help isn’t without risks, however.
Philadelphia officials chose a 22-year-old university graduate student in psychology to help get a mass vaccination site up and running quickly. But questions soon arose about his qualifications and whether he planned
to sell patient data, and the city shut the site down.
In the US and internationally, the military also has played a role, albeit with mixed reviews. Gustave Perna, the four-star US Army general tapped by the Trump Administration to oversee the Operation Warp Speed campaign to produce and deliver viable vaccines, apologised last month for ‘‘miscommunication’’ with states about the number of doses to be delivered in the early stages of distribution.
McGillivray says he’s grateful not only to use his marathon expertise to help end the pandemic, but because the state’s vaccination contract has become a lifeline that is helping to keep his company, DMSE Sports, afloat.
‘‘The pandemic put everything on hold. What we’ve now committed to is arguably our greatest mission ever – saving lives and keeping people healthy.’’