Louisiana's Vaccine Test Run

on Monday. It's the initial step in a historic drive to immunize millions of people as deaths in the US approach the three hundred thousand mark. The first shot went to critical care nurse Sandra Lindsay in New York, the city that was once the epicenter of the pandemic. Hospitals around the country went into overdrive this weekend preparing to

receive and administer the first doses of the vaccine. Shipments started leaving Fiser's Michigan plant early on Sunday morning, less than two days after the Food and Drug Administration authorized the vaccine for emergency use. They are scheduled to arrive at hundreds of sites between today and Wednesday, Italy overtook the UK as the European country with the highest number

of COVID nineteen deaths. The death toll puts pressure on Prime Minister Giuseppe Conti's government as it seeks to prevent a flare up of the contagion during the holiday season. Finally, Fightser and bio Antech may soon allow participants in its vaccine trial to learn whether they received a placebo rather than the real thing, and get the actual shot if they wish. In an emailed statement, Fizer said the option

would be voluntary and now for today's main story. As the first shots of the COVID nineteen vaccines in the US are administered, one of many big hurdles has yet to be cleared. States must transport and distribute the massive orders to the millions who need it. The state of Louisiana has been thinking about this problem for months. In November, they decided to test their vaccination strategy using the flu vaccine for the first time. The state hosted drive through

clinics across all of its nine public health regions. These were official exercises to practice vaccinating the state's nearly five million residents in the era of Social Distancing Angelica Levito, went to Shreveport, Louisiana, as the project was unfolding to find out what a mass vaccination looks like during a pandemic. I'm standing in the parking lot at the Louisiana State Fairgrounds. Often the distance towards the outskirts of the grounds you

can see signs for pizza and corn dogs. It's about eight o'clock in the morning, and local health workers have already been here for hours setting up a drive through flu shot clinic. To my left, we have the Health Department workers who are getting organized. They were moving boxes earlier filled with gloves, and then there's thermometers that they're going to be handing out to people in line. Over here, the National Guard setting up tents. They're in uniform. Everybody's

wearing a mask. The Health Department is hosting similar scenes across the state this fall. These are to practice how the state might administer COVID nineteen vaccines when they become available. It's the first time the city of Shreveport has offered drive through vaccinations. It's also the largest vaccine event the area has ever hosted. Nurses are ready to give up to one thousand five shots. Dr Martha White overseas the operation.

She leads the regional Health office. Today, she whizzes around the parking lot, checking in with her nurses, the National Guard, and the police officers patrolling the area. It's nine oh one. We have our first few cars coming through. The nurses are preparing the shot. They're working together taking out the vial. Because these are not individual doses, they have to actually take out with a syringe of free set amount. And

here we go. Here comes another nurse and she is sticking the man's arm with a shot and rolls down his sleeve. He puts the car in gear and now he's on his way. This scene almost makes the operation look easy, but it's only a preview of a far more complex effort ahead. The United States will soon start its largest mass vaccination campaign in modern history. The goal is to immunize as many Americans as possible against COVID nineteen.

The challenges are almost endless. The vaccines themselves are delicate. They have to be up at specific temperatures in order to be effective. Then doctors and pharmacists will need to make sure people come back for their second shot, and they will need to vaccinate millions of people. In the era of social distancing, vaccines could help end a pandemic that has killed about three hundred thousand Americans and ravaged the economy. Both effects can be felt here in Louisiana.

The state has a high number of infections and deaths. As a percent of its population, About two hundred seventy thousand people have fallen ill about seven thousand have died. Downtown Shreveport is empty these days. Government employees are working from home. Signs outside coffee shops ask patrons to wear masks. Some slot machines at the casinos along the riverfront are turned off to allow for social distancing. Shreveport Mayor Adrian

Perkins says the city's economy has been devastated. One large casino in the area is already out of business, and our casino is here locally have been hit very, very hard as well with the revenue short tenses. When they close the casinos and now when they opened them, they still can only have so much capacity, so their revenue is down and that impacts the city's budget because the city get revenue directly from the casinos and NINA Prose fund, so the city budget has been hit quite hard as well.

Controlling the virus offers the only way forward for Shreeve Sport and communities across the country, but not everybody wants to comply with measures to stop the spread. Some people do not believe the virus is real. Dr White can tell you it's very real. Her husband was on a ventilator for two months, nearly dying multiple times. She has reviewed every coronavirus JET certificate in the region, Yet every day she fights with people who called a pandemic hoax.

She pleads with people who were exposed to the virus to quarantine. She begs others to simply wear a mask. Someone compared her to the Soviet unions Joseph Stalin. She blames it on COVID becoming so politicized. She says the divide has made her job much harder. If people are happy with the restrictions and they aren't happy with, you know, having to isolate or quarantine, and so you have to

sometimes tell people things I don't want to hear. But all I can do is tell them what this viruses and what it's gonna do and what they need to do in response. And it's really much Dr White's work won't get any easier once COVID vaccines become available. She will need to tell people to trust the science. A lot of people already don't ad in skepticism from minority communities who have been hit especially hard by the virus, and you have quite the challenge. There's definitely vaccine hesitancy,

but there's vaccine hesitancy all the time. And then now that you've got this new vaccine, some people are like, I think I'm gonna wait and see, and um, I think that there's also all these conspiracy theories, and so you know, if you can get back down to the science of it um and talk to them about all the research and the fact that most of these vaccines started in preparation to stars and mergs, so there was a base on It's not like it just they already

had a good strong base for the vaccine. So it didn't happen overnight. It's not been rushed, you know. Actually administering shots will also be hard. Drive throughs are good way to space people out, but they also require a lot of work to stand up. Back at the fairgrounds, dozens of nurses are ready to give flu shots. Cars trickle in more slowly than Dr White would like. Nurses lounge and soccer chairs waiting for people to show up.

One nurse, don Leone, has seen the virus's deadly capabilities firsthand. I think that people might not respect this barrow is the way that we should. Leonie's family had been gathering every Sunday to worship together. Somebody brought the virus one weekend and infected the others. Nine relatives tested positive. Leonie's mother, father, and husband were all hospitalized at the same time. Her father died, Her mother and husband recovered. Her husband's still

experiences lingering effects like shortness of breadth. There's a real struggle for families, and it's not just illness. It affects other areas of our homes and our loves and um. It will affect me for a long time to see with us saw my dad went through. Vaccines could return a sense of normalcy if enough people get one. That's why Dr White's role is so important. Practicing now gives

her a chance to see what works. You know, the flow has gone really well, so we like the way it's set up, and I think it's we wouldn't have a back up even we'd had to take a lot of people for us to get behind, So that's good. I think it's been a good walkthrough. I just wish we had more people to tast it. The fairgrounds are a good place to reach vulnerable residents. They are located on the west side of town, home to Shreveport's black community.

Mayor Perkins says Shreveport is divided into two distinct sections. Like most Southern cities, a bus route runs along the fairgrounds. Dr White says in the future they could offer walk up shots to accommodate residents who can't drive there on their own. She also thinks about the best hours to reach more workers. These are all elements to consider for next time. The question is like this sustainability, So like how long would you want to do it this way?

So would we do it once a week? Would you do it, you know, for a full week and say, okay, anybody who wants to come. That's what you'd have to tweak in your head about, like what are what are the other ways we're going to offer. By the end of the day, only four hundred of the one thousand, five hundred shots are given out. Dr White wonders if people already were vaccinated. Because it's now November. The CDC had recommended getting a flu shot by the end of October.

Dr White will share the results from the flu shot clinic with her boss, Dr Frank Welch. He leads the state health departments immunization planning and he knows the importance of thinking ahead. Louisiana has seen its share of hurricanes, floods, and tornadoes. Is conducted as an official exercise. So um,

these things will be with everything. Things will go wrong, will be shared with everyone, and we will do and what we've falling after action report to say, you know, these are the good things, these are the bad things. Here's how we solve them. Here's if we didn't solve it, and you know, sharing that with our entire state to make sure that everyone gets the benefit of those Unlike with coronavirus testing, the state has a luxury of months to prepare. It will need every second it can get.

This campaign will be like no other. That was Angelica Levito and that's it for our show today. For coverage of the outbreak from one and twenty bureaus around the world, visit bloomberg dot com, slash coronavirus and if you like the show, please leave us a review and a rating on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It's the best way to help more listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily edition is produced by Tophor foreheads Jordan's Gaspoure, Magnus Hendrickson,

and me Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported by Angelica Levito. Original music by Leo Sidrin. Our editors are Rick Shine and Francesco Levi. Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's head of podcasts. Thanks for listening.