Hello and welcome to PBS39.

9 WLVT Community Update on Coronavirus It's brought to you with help from our community partner Lehigh Valley Health Network.

We're coming to you live from the PPE Public Media Center in Bethlehem.

I'm Brittany Sweeney.

Our guests today include an LVHN doctor who heads the network's physicians group.

Also here is a pharmacist working through the overwhelming demand for the Covid-19 vaccines.

We'll meet them in just a few minutes.

If you have a question, you can give us a call.

The phone number is 4 8 4 8 2 1 0 0 0 8.

Our guests will answer some of your questions live.

Plus for daily coronavirus updates, be sure to sign up for our newsletter.

You can do that at our website coronavirus Lehigh Valley .org.

You can find helpful information in both English and Spanish.

Let's take a look at today's top headlines.

The State Department of Health reported 3128 new coronavirus cases and just under 3300 hospitalizations.

Numbers that have stabilized from their peaks in early January.

PAs total case count now stands at nearly 855.

Thousand.

Another 143.

Deaths reported today brings the total number of Pennsylvania's who have died from Covid-19 to 21,900 and 55.

The director of the CDC says if teachers are not vaccinated- for the coronavirus.

The CDC director made that assertion today and cited data that shows social distancing and mask wearing significantly reduced spreading the virus in schools.

Some teachers unions across the country have threatened to strike over resuming in-person instruction before teachers are inoculated.

The Biden administration is moving to expand a vaccine access.

The plan is to free up more doses for states and begin to distribute them to retail pharmacies that could start as soon as next week.

The administration is calling for 1 million more doses to be given to about 6500 pharmacies across the country.

It's also ramping up weekly allocation of vaccines directly to the states.

Dr Anthony Fauci is warning against turning this Sunday's Super Bowl into a super spreader.

Fauci is cautioning against Super Bowl watch parties or gatherings this weekend to avoid surges of the virus that have come after other national holidays.

His advice just lay low and cool it.

Let's meet our guests for the day today.

Dr Jennifer Stephens is back with us.

She's the chief medical officer for LVHN physician Group.

The many doctors who provide outpatient services across the Lehigh Valley.

Vince Hartsville is a pharmacist and co-owner of Hartleys Pharmacy in Catasauqua.

It's one of the few independent pharmacies in the Lehigh Valley scheduling and administering vaccinations.

We want thank you both for joining us today.

Mr Hartzell, we'll be back with you in just a few minutes.

We're going to start with Dr Stevens.

Thank you once again for joining us.

Great to be here.

Great to have you.

Of course, the winter storm, 30 plus inches of snow have forced to reschedule of many vaccinations the past two days.

I'm wondering what kind of delays that causes and what it takes to get them back on track.

Great question.

So it was quite a storm.

So hopefully everyone watching it safe and made it through just fine.

So I'm thankful to say that Lehigh Valley Health Network our hospital clinics did not close despite the storm.

We were able to maintain vaccinations schedules and continue to vaccinate those that were able to safely come in for their vaccines.

Recognizing that we certainly did have many cancellations for folks that were just unable to make it in such a way that we worked through.

That certainly was calling folks that we had on deck scheduled for later in the week and seeing if they could come in earlier trying to fill the available that we had within our schedule of an opening up opportunities for those that may have had to cancel other clinics that we have smaller clinics that are in operation certainly did have to close some of their sites and they have been doubling up to catch up throughout the rest of the week and we'll save for any one that was scheduled at one of our locations that was unable to come in for their vaccine through the portal.

The My LVHN portal, if they canceled their appointment, they can go ahead and reschedule that at an available time in the future.

Sure.

We've heard of vaccinations expiring a two day interruption like this snow storm.

Does that threaten the expiration date of any of these vaccines?

So thankfully, not if you have vaccine that saves them the appropriate vaccine storage environments.

We did have a nice partnership with the Allentown Health Bureau yesterday where they had vaccine late in the day.

They were unable to administer it with the short timeline weather.

So we were able to collaborate with them and capture all of those doses so that nothing went to waste.

I think that's one of the most important examples of the collaboration and the work that we're trying to do around saving any vaccine and not wasting.

But as long as it's in the appropriate storage and is being managed properly, it doesn't need to be missed.

Great.

Dr Stevens.

We're seeing the number of cases begin to fall as more people are being inoculated.

Does that correlate with each other?

Is that because more people are getting that vaccine or is it just because that holiday surge is now fading?

So that's a really good question.

You know, it's interesting.

We started vaccinating in the tail end of December.

So it usually takes the understanding there's start to these vaccines.

It takes two months to really go through the process of being fully vaccinated and to develop that full immunity.

So we're just now starting to get to a place where we could start to see some of the impact.

Anecdotally, we are seeing some changes within our Health Network with those individuals that have been vaccinated.

But it really is too soon to say that it's because of the vaccination events that are happening.

What we are seeing likely is that we had a huge surge around the time of Holiday's, as was mentioned, national holidays where people gathered or got together created just a very big surge for us that we are incredibly grateful is starting to calm down.

But I do think we have to stay stay vigilant and stay tuned to this moving forward.

And we're very hopeful that over the next couple of months we will start to see that continued downward trend.

Sure, sure.

Hopefully a good science for sure.

We're seeing some video where we're seeing some video of the Dorney Park location where people are being vaccinated through LVHN.

Where else can people go to get vaccinated?

Are some of the rural offices offering vaccines as well?

Yes.

So Dorney Park was a great success.

And hopefully, as many viewers know, the network has extensive experience in doing drive through vaccinations.

We cans or hospital sites and this drive model captured thousands in a day just to vaccinate.

If we have a vaccine to do that.

So as we move forward, we are standing up other locations.

We have our large hospital based clinics.

We do have the drive model that we are looking to expand out into other regions over the next couple of weeks.

We are standing out some practice based locations and areas so that there is more access points for our patients.

And we do have a mobile clinic that actually goes out and we're supporting skilled nursing facilities and some long term care facilities to capture those patients as well and make sure that we're distributing vaccine as much as possible.

The only thing hampering our efforts is vaccine and so the more we have, the quicker we can do.

Dr Stevens, for those watching.

Can you please reiterate how people can go about signing up and getting on a list to get that vaccine get registered for an appointment?

Absolutely.

So our my LVHN portal is really the ticket to the vaccine.

It's the most convenient and simplest way for them to get get in the queue and get free registered.

So you use the app or you go online, you can certainly access and create an account.

Simple.

You don't need a special code.

You don't need to be a patient of our organization.

When you go in there.

You'll find one of two different two different questionnaires.

One is for those that are essential workers.

You can go into that and complete what industry your opinion and essentially put in that you're interested in the chronic conditions between the ages of 18 and 64.

There's a questionnaire on there as well.

You go in and attest to the fact that you chronic condition that puts you as an eligible patient or person to get the vaccine for those individuals that are on the portal who are over 65.

We have your information.

You'll have to complete any other questionnaire, anyone on the portal over the age of 65 is pre-register.

We have everything lined up.

So once we have all that information, then as availability comes in with vaccine and then our clinics, you will receive a self scheduling ticket and conveniently you can go ahead and schedule online.

If someone doesn't have access to technology, we do have a phone line.

They can also call the phone line for the network that is on our website and that will connect them to our access schedule.

Sure.

As I said in today's headlines, the federal government saying they're going to give out more vaccines to the states.

Has LVHN seen any evidence of that in their allocations of vaccines Gamma Unfortunately, We are hopeful that we will over the coming weeks, as I mentioned and the only thing limiting us in expanding, you know, as soon as we have vaccine, it's our job to turn it around probably quickly and administer it as fast as we possibly can.

We do not have vaccine sitting on shelves anywhere.

So unfortunately I wish I could tell you we had, you know, more you see more.

But that has not come to us yet.

Sure.

Of course.

This Sunday, Super Bowl Sunday, we heard Dr Fauci say, you know, lay low and cool it, if you will.

What he said.

What's your advice for people Gamma I know it's almost been a year.

People are itching to get together.

What's your advice for them as the coronavirus is still out there?

Hey, I can really understand.

My advice is similar to humans in that we still have to remain vigilant.

We are in a place where we still don't have a wide percentage that a vaccine and to safe from this virus.

So I think the important thing is, is and again, it's difficult to say, hard to do but continue to try and vigilant to mask the socially dense really tried to continue following everything that we've been doing up to this point.

As I mentioned, the improvement in the numbers right now.

It's not likely attributed to the vaccine that are rolling out because it hasn't hit that critical mass yet.

The surge that we saw in December was because of the holidays, because people gathered and got together.

So the last one is for another surge.

And so we do we just ask our continued patience partnership and working through this as much.

Sure.

There are a lot of people receiving their first and second doses of vaccines.

Can you talk to us, please, about what people can do once they get that vaccine?

Would it be appropriate for them to come together?

I don't know what a Super Bowl party or travel or should they or should they not wear a mask?

What can folks do once they are inoculated Gamma So our recommendations have not changed to continue socially just insane to continue masking, continue washing hands, doing all the things that you're doing now.

We are seeing a reduction in symptomatic Covid.

Infections for those that have been vaccinated, but it doesn't mean that you can't still spread it to others.

And I think that's the important reality that we're facing.

And so we get to a place where we really see that the recommendations are expected to change.

We are waiting for other guidance based on research, based on data as we see how more people that are vaccinated So as we see that, we anticipate more guidance will be coming in the future.

But despite vaccination, the recommendations are still the same.

Continue masking.

Continue using sanitizer.

Washing all of those things in the recommended.

Dr Stevens, you manage the physicians group.

Over the past year we've seen a lot of medicine shift to telemedicine.

All of those patients now calling in or going online for their appointments.

Talk to me about how it has changed over the past year.

What's different now than this time last year?

So this year has been transformative for us and we've spoken on this in other times.

The virtual system being able to live to video visits or phone visits when we have severe weather storms or something comes up has been a wonderful show.

It allows to with a flip of a switch, transform and still connect with our patients despite transportation issues or whatever may.

So for us, it was seamless the day we flipped entirely almost 99% virtually to connect with our patients.

And it was something that happened so easily.

Now throughout the course of the year.

It's been an iterative process to make it more simple, more simple, more simple and really make it convenient for our patients.

And we continue to have ways that we're looking to augment that moving forward.

But it really worked well for us.

Our volumes are on par and continuing to supersede where we were for earlier in the 20 as this started to rollout.

So very successful way of delivering health care.

SHAW And Dr Stevens, before we let you go, I just want to ask how the people you work with are holding up.

How is morale?

I know a year ago a lot of people were rallying around health care workers and parades were happening and food was being dropped off and we've kind of seen that.

I've seen a lot of people post online health care workers, nurses post about how that's kind of dropped off.

But they're still treating patients.

This coronavirus, like I said, is still here.

They are still super busy.

So how are they so?

So our colleagues, our workers, our healthcare partners are really amazing to me, our team that we have they do what they do because that's what they do.

And.

And so although all appreciation was wonderful and I think it was nice to see and hear, you know, for many of our clinicians, that's not what necessarily drives them.

They do it for their patients and for the community.

People are tired.

I will say it has been a very fatiguing year, realizing now we're coming up on a year of facing this.

And when everything really started to hit.

So I think that's the important piece is that, you know, they feel that it's been.

But there's hope now.

And I'll tell you that this vaccine, the ability of seeing our health, your partners vaccinated to go through it was just a shining star through this.

And it really gave so many people a boost knowing that we can get through this.

Seeing the numbers come down, seeing the wave start to go down has also been really good.

And knowing that we've made it through.

So we're leaning on each other.

We're supporting each other.

Certainly just thankful to see that our community members are getting vaccinated.

You know, seeing the patients that come through the vaccine clinics, they're just they're so grateful and they're so happy to be there.

And I think that's what's keeping people going is just seeing that hopefully there continues to be even.

Sure.

Dr Jennifer Stevens, thank you and your colleagues for everything you have done during this pandemic and for years.

We thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you.

We continue this community update on coronavirus on PBS39.

You can hear the rebroadcast on the radio tonight at 9:30 on WLVT News.

91 three FM.

And we'd also like to invite you to a special presentation tomorrow night at 7:00.

I'll host a live interactive community conversation Covid-19 vaccines fact versus fiction.

We'll ask the experts in an hour-long forum about vaccine delivery and safety, as well as explore issues related to reopening schools and workers rights.

That's 7pm Thursday here on PBS39.

Streaming on PBS39.org and on our Facebook page.

Now let's bring in our next guest for the day's events.

Hartzell is a pharmacist whose family has owned and operated Heartsongs Pharmacy in Catasauqua for over 50 years.

He has been recognize nationally for his work in increasing access to immunizations and that has taken on a new importance during the pandemic.

As Covid-19 vaccines gained emergency approval Vince.

Thank you so much for joining us and being here today.

Thank you for having me.

Absolutely.

I just want to start and ask you, how is it that sells this family run independent pharmacy was able to be among the very first to get some of those vaccines back in the spring.

The Department of Health sent out a memo understanding four pharmacies that would be interested in being vaccination sites for the Covid vaccine once it became available.

And we were probably one the first ones to sign on with that.

And it just so happened that, you know, the health systems got it first, which rightfully they should have.

And we were able to get our vaccine in this January 15th and we've been vaccinating ever since.

Sure.

We know it's been overwhelming for a lot of different health care facilities.

Talk to me about what it's been like at Heartsongs Pharmacy as well.

Are you seeing that overwhelming response to getting the vaccine, to wanting the vaccine Gamma It's been interesting when we first got it the first five days, to be honest, it was just like giving flu shots.

We didn't get the demand surge that we expected to get initially.

But then the Department of Health changed their prioritization and switched some extra individuals into one A, which would be that 65 and over age group.

And when that happened, our phone system blew up.

We got about 500 phone calls within an hour on that Tuesday or Wednesday.

I can tell you our Google Analytics on our website where we have a appointment request page similar to you would anywhere other provider.

Right now we are sitting at over 9000 requests to give the vaccine.

So it's been phenomenal what's happened.

And I can tell you my team, I think they've been MVP is an all stars with how they've handled it.

To date, we've given over 900 vaccines and typically in a flu season we only do about 600 to 700.

So we've done in about two weeks more than we do an entire season for flu vaccine.

We've just pushing it out.

Sure.

Did you know that those stipulations were gonna change for who can get that vaccine?

Were you alerted to that before people started calling the pharmacy saying, hey, I'm you know, X, Y, Z, I'm in the first group, I can get it now.

Were you alerted to that from the state Gamma Not really.

I think I found out in the Department of Health found out all about the same time.

And I think the public found out first from a press conference that was held.

So we kind of found out the same time everyone else found out.

Sure.

And then how many vaccines are you administering per day?

Per week?

How many are you getting in at a time?

Can you put that in perspective for us?

So a lot of our initial dose is were doses that were earmarked for LTC facilities.

There were some facilities that had some of the national agreements backed out on and so they were left in the lurch.

So we kind of went in and kind of helped clean some of that up.

We've been doing probably about anywhere from 400 to about 500 a week.

And that's pretty much where we've been doing the highest we've done in a day has been 120.

So not nearly 4000 at LVHN can cover.

But we feel like we're doing our part to kind of help out the same boat.

Just basically trying to help everyone get the vaccine as quickly and swiftly as possible.

And I think the one thing that everyone has to understand is I'll tell you know, I just want Stephens says.

It's been a very long year, but I will tell you, this vaccine I can't tell how much hope this has given my staff, the patients coming in.

It's been professionally rewarding sitting down with patients and just seeing them tear up as they're getting the vaccine.

I've had no one normally cry over.

I mean, they've cried.

We're getting a vaccine because of the needle.

But it's been it's nice.

That's heartwarming to hear.

We've seen some of the appointments on the health department level.

LVHN St Luke's, those appointments fill up very fast.

The vaccines.

Are you seeing the same thing at your shop?

Are the appointments filling up really fast?

Are you even taking appointments at this point?

We had a scheduling system that kind of screened patients based off of where they would have been and when the health department changed.

We kind of had to take it all down and put new ones up.

And they've been request form.

So as doses came in, we would send out appointment links for people to schedule.

But unfortunately, like I said, we have about eight to 9000 requests for appointments.

We don't have surreally have all the doses to meet that.

And so we're kind of in the same boat as other providers trying to get the doses we possibly can to get them into the arms.

But it's a balance of doing what we normally do as a pharmacy plus giving the vaccine at the same time.

So that's kind of the balancing act that my team I think has been doing a good job.

Sure.

If someone is looking for an appointment, they have to be from Lehigh County or can it just be anybody in that one?

A group we have not been taking it for Lehigh County.

But the one thing that we are pretty strong on is making sure that they actually qualify for the vaccine.

There are individuals out there that have written well this and that and I really need the vaccine to be honest.

I think every health care provider would agree that we want everyone to get the vaccine.

But unfortunately what we have to do is health care providers make sure those that are more fragile and more medically frail.

If they would get Covid get that vaccine first because they need to be protected.

And the health care providers need to get protected too, because we need to be there to take care of the patients when they need it.

Sure.

Are you prioritizing within that one a group say taking 75 and older first.

Is there any price prioritizing in there Gamma The way we've been Brad Klein prioritizing has been basically we've been taking our customers that 65 and over first.

If they accept it.

But we've also been looking, you know, how many criterias they qualify for.

For example, we had someone that was a health care provider, but they were also 65.

God bless them.

They're still working and helping out.

So we make sure that we bump those people up a little higher on the list.

We can take care of them.

So we're trying to do our best to prioritize based off of age and what the health department says are the disease states would qualify them for the vaccine.

Sure.

We've heard of some communication issues between the federal government and the state and then the state and the networks.

Are you having any communication issues when it comes to getting that vaccine?

And I know some of the complaints were that the networks didn't know they were getting the vaccines until that week.

Are you seeing those same issues Gamma Yes.

No.

I mean, we've had a pretty good response with the Department of Health.

We have a nurse that my wife is our coordinator and she's been dealing with her mostly the hard thing is you put that request in for what you need and what you want.

And it does take some time until that vaccine does show up then and you're not necessarily sure what's coming until the day that you get the notice from the state that it's coming.

So you can't really plan any appointments.

You can't plan clinics until that vaccines in your freezer.

So that kind of gives a rate limiting step there.

And it's kind of hard because as we're getting into we're getting into our dose 2s.

So as we're getting into our dose, those two those have to be ordered separately and we have to make sure that those dose 2s when they come in, go to those dose 2 patients.

So it's kind of a logistical juggling match that I think all providers are dealing with right now as we're dealing with getting the vaccine in.

Shawn, did you have to make different accommodations at the pharmacy Gamma I know it's the Moderna vaccine that has to be super cold.

Did you have to make any different arrangements for these vaccines?

Fortunately, we have always been very large in immunizations.

So we had a medical grade freezer that was that we used for zoster vacs when Zoster vacc was out as the shingles vaccine.

So that freezer that we have was able to store the 1500, we can store up to about 1500 doses of the Covid vaccine.

Currently.

So we basically have been able to logistically handle that.

And if we need to, we can put some in the fridge which we can store for up to 30 days.

We don't like to put too much in the fridge because we want to make sure we can get through it.

Just like Dr Stevens said when we're talking about making sure no doses go to waste.

I can proudly say we haven't thrown away a single dose yet.

If we go out to LTC facility as soon as me or my pharmacist team are coming back, we're calling our coordinators here at the pharmacy and they're calling whoever is next on the list and saying can you get here within three hours Gamma Because if you can, you've got a dose.

If you can't, then we're going on to the next person on the list.

Sure.

One more quick question for you before we go today.

We heard that the federal government wants to give a million doses.

They want to distribute them to 6500 pharmacies across the country.

Do you think you'll be getting any of those doses Gamma That is a great question.

And I don't think anyone can answer that yet.

I do think it's good that more providers are coming online.

I think my biggest perception is that they're just not simply enough providers able to give vaccine at this time.

We are fortunate in our area to have two very large health systems, but even they have other jobs to do.

And so the more providers that are able to give vaccine, the more arms that are going to get those vaccines and the more patients are going to get vaccinated.

All right, Vince Hartzell from Hartleys Pharmacy.

Thank you so much for joining.

And we want to thank you for joining us for Community Update on coronavirus.

We'll be back here at 4pm each Monday, Wednesday and Friday on PBS39.

And on the radio at 9:30 those same nights on WLVT News for PBS39 WLVT.

I'm Brittany Sweeney.

Stay safe.