Navajo Nation receives 1st shipment of COVID-19 vaccine

As the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines roll out across the U.S. this week, the Navajo Nation received its first doses Monday and plans to administer them to health care workers starting Tuesday.

The pandemic has at times overwhelmed the Navajo Nation, which earlier this year had the highest infection rate per capita. The daily number of COVID-19 positive cases has risen sharply during the latest wave of the virus, according to data from the Navajo Nation Department of Health.

On Monday, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez and Vice President Myron Lizer visited the Gallup Indian Medical Center as the Navajo Area IHS received the first shipment of the vaccines. 

The Gallup facility has the appropriate ultra freeze technology necessary to keep the vaccine safe.

The shipment contained the first of an expected 3,900 doses of the vaccine on the way this week, said Dr. Loretta Christensen, the chief medical officer for the Navajo area Indian Health Service. About 7,900 doses of the Moderna vaccine would arrive the following week, pending emergency use approval by the federal government.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration authorized emergency use of the Pfizer vaccine on Friday night.

Those vaccines will cover health care workers, emergency medical staff, traditional practitioners working in Indian Health Service facilities, tribal facilities and the staff and patients in long-term nursing facilities, Christensen said.

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On Tuesday, additional shipments will be sent to Northern Medical Center in Shiprock, New Mexico, and then to the health care facility in Chinle. 

Christensen said the goal is to get the vaccine to hospitals with the proper equipment to store them, since the Pfizer vaccine requires such cold temperatures. 

"We are placing it strategically in those freezers so that we can then take that vaccine to the other health centers and hospitals," she added.

The vaccine will be distributed to the Kayenta Health Center, Crownpoint Health Care Facility, Tuba City Regional Health Care, Sage Memorial Hospital, Tsehootsooi Medical Center, Winslow Indian Health Care Center, and Native Americans for Community Action, an urban health program in Flagstaff. 

"Our distribution team will go to those three large sites in Chinle, Shiprock and Gallup, and we will take the amount of vaccine that has been assigned to all of the other facilities and we will drive it directly to their facility," Christensen said.

"Right now we have ultra freeze capability at Gallup, Northern Navajo, Chinle and Tsehootsooi," Christensen said. There are smaller freezers at Kayenta.

"We are looking into getting additional ultra freeze capacity," she added.

Officials at Sage Memorial Hospital in Ganado confirmed they received a shipment of the vaccine Monday and will start administering the vaccine among health care workers Tuesday.

"Sage Memorial received its first COVID-19 vaccines from the manufacturer Pfizer. These vaccines will be administered beginning tomorrow,  to our frontline heroes who have been working directly with the public to combat this health pandemic," CEO Sage Memorial Hospital Christi El-Meligi said in a statement to The Arizona Republic.  

"We are thankful to have the opportunity to provide this vaccine to hospital staff and look forward to future shipments that can be provided to the Navajo people," she added.

Sage Memorial Hospital provides services to more than 20,000 Navajo people, according to El-Meligi.

The vaccine will be administered based on the phased distribution plan outlined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to a press release. The CDC's plan calls for health care workers and those living in long-term assisted living facilities to receive the vaccine first, on a volunteer basis.

“I commend Navajo Area Indian Health Service for their careful planning and diligence to ensure our health care workers receive the Pfizer vaccine as soon as possible," said Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez in a press release. "This is the first step in the vaccine process to help rid this invisible monster from our homes and communities." 

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected Native American populations across the country, according to the Indian Health Service, with infection rates over 3.5 times higher than non-Hispanic whites. Native Americans are also four times more likely to be hospitalized as a result of COVID-19.

The highest number of positive cases in the spring was reported in May with 238 reported on a single day. In recent weeks, the highest number reported in a single day was 398 on Nov. 21.  

As of Dec. 13, the total number of positive COVID-19 cases on the Navajo Nation is 19,608 with 720 deaths. Another 10,371 people have recovered.

"Until the vaccines are available to the general public, all of us have to continue to take proper precautions and keep our guard up to protect ourselves from the spread of COVID-19," Nez added. 

Christensen said health officials have followed the progress of the vaccine development.

"We all support and believe it will be effective," she said. We do encourage you, although it is voluntary, we do encourage you to please get the vaccine when it's your turn." 

Earlier this year, the Navajo Nation announced its participation in the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine clinical trial and enrollment for the study began in late September.

Since then, 163 Navajo and 58 White Mountain Apache tribal citizens volunteered to participate, according to Laura Hammitt, director of infectious disease programs at the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health. Overall there were 463 Native American participants.

"After two doses the vaccine was found to be 95% effective in preventing COVID-19," Hammitt said. "This is really remarkable."

As part of the clinical trials, Hammitt said the side effects that people experienced from vaccine were generally mild.

The most common side effects were pain from where the shot was given, she said. They also experienced tiredness, muscle aches and headaches, but all of these went away after a couple of days.

"We did see in the clinical trial that older adults were less likely to have side effects," Hammitt added. "About 1 in 6 people who were 55 or younger said that they developed a fever and in those 55 and older it was about 1 in 10."

Hammitt said since the vaccine went through the normal clinical trials process and had over 40,000 participants, long-term side effects are not expected.

"Given how these vaccines are made and what we observed in the clinical trials, we do not expect that there are going to be long-term effects," she said. "It's possible there may be rare adverse reactions that become apparent when very large numbers of people are vaccinated." 

"We know that COVID is surging right now and that our families and communities are suffering," she said. "This vaccine offers hope." 

"I certainly will not hesitate to get one of these vaccines and will be encouraging my family to do the same," she added. 

Even though this is only the first phase of the vaccine distribution on the Navajo Nation, some people are encouraged by it.

Annarita Begay, a Navajo woman who is considered an essential worker, has been researching the coronavirus vaccines but still has questions about any adverse, long-term effects. But she is open minded because she has a grandmother and other high-risk people at home.

“(It’s) kind of like a pick-your-poison game at this point,” she said. "If you have underlying conditions like asthma, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, you either have that and get COVID, or you take a vaccine and experience some side effects later on.”

“If I could get it, I would probably be setting an example for my own family to see how it would work,” she added.

Crystal Kee, a 43-year-old Navajo woman who works in early childhood development, wouldn’t be among the first group vaccinated. But she does encourage anyone who is able to get the vaccine to get it to help protect children, the elderly and health care workers.

“Along this entire journey has been significant heartbreak and loss,” Kee said. “In terms of just the vaccine development, I feel like it offers us a glimmer of hope and protection, not selfishly … but really for others.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Reporter Shondiin Silversmith covers Indigenous people and communities in Arizona. Reach her at ssilversmi@arizonarepublic.com and follow her Twitter @DiinSilversmith.

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