46 Villages in 10 Days: The stellar effort to get vaccines where they were needed most.

• Author: Simonelli, Isaac Stone
• Position: TRANSPORTATION SPECIAL SECTION

According to Yukon-Kuskokwim Health Corporation (YKHC) Chief of Staff Dr. Ellen Hodges, the planning, coordination, communication, and dedication that made the vaccine rollout in rural Alaska a success story is striking.

"That project was the most extraordinary project I have ever had the honor to be a part of. We got vaccine out to forty-six villages in something like ten days," Hodges says. "Everybody kind of had to all be on the same page and all pull together in the same direction for this to be successful."

Project Togo

In December, vaccines were rolled out to some of the most remote parts of the United States, providing vulnerable populations access to vaccination to help prevent a fragile healthcare system from being overwhelmed.

In the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta, the distribution was named Project Togo. While Balto led the pack the final miles to Nome in 1925 with life-saving antitoxins to end a diphtheria outbreak, it was Togo who had done the heavy lifting.

"It was actually Togo who led the team most of the way, kind of the unsung hero of the Nome serum run," Hodges says.

Though the first Pfizer vaccines were rolled out to villages off the road system in December, planning started months earlier.

"We wanted to lay the groundwork, as much as possible, so that the geography, distance, and sheer size of Alaska was not going to be something to hold us back," says Alaska Department of Health and Social Services Commissioner Adam Crum, noting that the state started planning its vaccine distribution in August.

"I think there was incredible effort to get vaccine availability early into rural communities," says Dr. Robert Onders, the Alaska Native Medical Center administrator and liaison to the state for the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium.

He explains there are three primary factors that allowed rural Alaska to successfully distribute vaccines during the pandemic: the federal government providing separate allocations of vaccines to tribal organizations, Alaska Native tribal organizations coordinating efforts with the state of Alaska, and a reliance on local knowledge for distribution.

"They actually moved vaccine around the state in such cool ways: by bush plane, by helicopter, by dog sled and four wheeler," Crum says. "It was just such an Alaskan thing to do... no matter where you're at, we're gonna find a way to get there."

Effect on Alaska Natives

Getting vaccines to these rural communities was important because they were home to...