Stanford Apologizes After Vaccine Allocation Leaves Out Nearly All Medical Residents

Stanford Medicine apologized on Friday for its vaccine distribution plan – a plan that came under fire for leaving out nearly all of its medical residents and fellows, many of whom regularly treat COVID-19 patients.

The residents waged a protest on Friday morning, holding signs and demanding answers from Stanford's leadership about why just seven of more than 1,300 residents at Stanford were selected to receive the vaccine in the first round of 5,000 doses.

A council composed of the chief residents sent a letter to Stanford's leadership on Thursday night expressing anger and disappointment as they had learned that residents and fellows would not be a priority in the first allocation. Residents are doctors in training, who have graduated from medical school.

"Many of us know senior faculty who have worked from home since the pandemic began in March 2020, with no in-person patient responsibilities, who were selected for vaccination. In the meantime, we residents and fellows strap on N95 masks for the tenth month of this pandemic without a transparent and clear plan for our protection in place. While leadership is pointing to an error in an algorithm meant to ensure equity and justice, our understanding is this error was identified on Tuesday and a decision was made not to revise the vaccine allocation scheme before its release today," they wrote.

Read the rest of the NPR story here.

— Laurel Wamsley, NPR