The board of directors of the national Community Oncology Alliance is urging those patients get priority for the Covid-19 vaccine.
Breast Cancer specialist Dr. Debra Patt, is a Vice President of Texas oncology and part of the COA's executive leadership. She says "because our patients are older and have co-morbid illness, they're really challenged in navigating the electronic mechanisms to sign up for mass vaccination. We really need to be able to provide vaccines to our patients in our clinics."
She says she saw 20 patients Thursday, three of them had gotten a shot and the rest wanted one. Of the three one lived in an assisted living facility and was prioritized, the other two were young and were able to navigate the online portal. The rest could not navigate online.
Patt says there's a natural consequence of not quickly vaccinating the highest risk population. "Those are the patients that are getting hospitalized and dying of covid. So if you're not going to prioritize that group and get those people in first, you're not going to be able to influence some of the supply issues we're having in healthcare today."
She says those are the patients that are most at risk for hospitalization and hospital space is very low.
She says oncology clinics have cold storage capability for the Pfizer vaccine.
