Stanford's vaccine distribution woes could be 'harbinger' of broader issue, left-out doctors say

Stanford Health Care.
(Image credit: iStock.)

Only seven of Stanford Medicine's 1,300 residents, many of whom have regularly been on the frontlines treating COVID-19 patients, made the cut to receive the medical center's first set of coronavirus vaccine doses, some of which instead went to health care workers who don't attend to coronavirus patients and medical faculty who have been working from home. Stanford acknowledged the mistake and "profusely" apologized Friday, citing an algorithmic error, and some of the doctors have since been inoculated, but the mishap has raised concerns about vaccine distribution around the country.

James Dickerson, a 28-year-old internal medicine resident at Stanford, predicted similar controversies around the country, telling The Washington Post that the "devil is in the details." Another internal medicine resident, Christine Santiago, explained that residents "fall in this vague, unclear position" because "we're not fully employees of the workforce," suggesting that what happened at Stanford could be part of a broader issue. She tweeted that the "disparities in distribution" at Stanford may be "a harbinger" of what's to come for "underserved communities" across the U.S. Read more at The Washington Post. Tim O'Donnell

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.