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.
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.
-
Ukraine hints at end to 'hot war' with Russia in 2025Talking Points Could the new year see an end to the worst European violence of the 21st Century?
-
What does the FDIC do?In the Spotlight Deposit insurance builds confidence in the banking system
-
2024: The year of conspiracy theoriesIN THE SPOTLIGHT Global strife and domestic electoral tensions made this year a bonanza for outlandish worldviews and self-justifying explanations
-
California declares bird flu emergencySpeed Read The emergency came hours after the nation's first person with severe bird flu infection was hospitalized
-
Bird flu one mutuation from human threat, study findsSpeed Read A Scripps Research Institute study found one genetic tweak of the virus could enable its spread among people
-
Dark chocolate tied to lower diabetes riskSpeed Read The findings were based on the diets of about 192,000 US adults over 34 years
-
ACA opens 2025 enrollment, enters 2024 raceSpeed Read Mike Johnson promises big changes to the Affordable Care Act if Trump wins the election
-
McDonald's sued over E. coli linked to burgerSpeed Read The outbreak has sickened at least 49 people in 10 states and left one dead
-
Texas dairy worker gets bird flu from infected cowSpeed Read The virus has been spreading among cattle in Texas, Kansas, Michigan and New Mexico
-
Dengue hits the Americas hard and earlySpeed Read Puerto Rico has declared an epidemic as dengue cases surge
-
US bans final type of asbestosSpeed Read Exposure to asbestos causes about 40,000 deaths in the U.S. each year
