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Congrats to Alpena on vaccine rollout

On a per-capita basis, Alpena County is in the top five of Michigan’s counties for the number of doses of coronavirus vaccines administered, a recent analysis of state data by News staff writer Crystal Nelson showed.

Nelson’s analysis showed other Northeast Michigan counties significantly further behind, and all counties still had a long way to go toward the 70% to 75% of the adult population that would give us the “herd immunity” to actually put an end to this pandemic.

Alpena County’s success is likely attributable to the fact that the county is home to the region’s hospital, and health care workers were the first eligible to receive the vaccine.

Still, the smooth rollout at the hospital and to other health care workers — especially given that doses have to be driven multiple times a week from Midland to Alpena by the hospital’s Dr. Richard Bates — is both commendable and encouraging.

If the hospital can overcome the logistical and organizational hurdles it takes to vaccinate its employees, that’s a good sign that similar hurdles can be overcome to roll out the vaccine more broadly.

It won’t be easy, but the data shows us signs that we have the right people in place to get the job done.

(THE ALPENA NEWS)

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