Why a Michigan doctor is driving coronavirus vaccines from hospital to hospital in a Honda

Roughly 2 weeks ago, Richard Bates, MD, a physician in Alpena, MI, transported the area’s first doses of Pfizer-BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine to a rural community hospital from MidMichigan Medical Center-Midland, and he plans to make additional trips by car for the next several weeks. The presence of suitable freezers is a key reason the city of Alpena received the vaccines. Since the pandemic’s onset, MidMichigan’s lead pharmacist and head of ancillary services, Bryan Cross, monitored vaccine research. He decided in October to purchase two ultracold freezers, which arrived in early December, just before FDA authorized Pfizer’s vaccine for emergency use. A surgeon, pulmonologist, nurse, and an EMT were among the first vaccinated in Northern Michigan on December 16. MidMichigan Health was placed on a list of five hospitals that the state said were “pre-positioned” to receive the first shipments as soon as they could be distributed. The health system, which comprises the main hospital in Midland and six other rural hospitals, is slated to receive 2,900 doses of vaccine. Daniel L. Maxwell, DO, chair of medicine at MidMichigan Medical Center–Alpena, observes: “We’re not getting it 6 months after Detroit or New York or San Francisco; we’re getting it at the same time. To me and to our community, that’s a really important message.”