Remote Healthcare Delivery

A pharmacist, a doctor and two nurses boarded a snowmobile. That’s not a set-up for a joke -- rather, it was just one portion of a grueling trip undertaken by four medical workers to ensure that people living in remote corners of Alaska were vaccinated against Covid-19. And all four members of the team who completed the task are women. Planes and sleds were also involved in the trip to inoculate elder residents in several of Alaska’s far-flung villages. And travel wasn’t the only complication -- special care had to be taken with the vaccines themselves, to ensure that they were consistently stored at the proper temperature throughout the (below freezing) journey. "We did the best we could, we had to kind of come up with it in the moment," Dr. Katrine Bengaard told ABC’s "Good Morning America." "It’s challenging getting the vaccine up here to begin with, and then getting it out to the villages brings on a whole new set of challenges and logistical issues," pharmacist Meredith Dean added during the interview. "Time is of the utmost importance." Indeed it is. The vaccine has offered us some hope as the coronavirus crisis carries on. The rollout of it, however, has been less-than-perfect -- to put it lightly. But this team of women traveled several hundred miles, using several methods of transportation, to administer the vaccine to 65 people scattered throughout multiple villages. "We made it work and we had a really good time together," said Bengaard. "We were all willing to do what we needed to do."

Remote Healthcare Delivery

This All-Female Team Delivered Vaccines to The Furthest Corners of Alaska

The Story Exchange

Remote Healthcare Delivery

This All-Female Team Delivered Vaccines to The Furthest Corners of Alaska

The Story Exchange

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