As Hospitals Roll Out COVID-19 Vaccines, Health Care Workers Describe Chaos And Anger

Arlene Ramirez receives the Moderna coronavirus COVID-19 vaccine at Northwell Health’s Long Island Jewish Valley Stream hospital in New York City on Dec. 21. Healthcare workers across the country have started receiving COVID-19 vaccines, but doctors and nurses at some hospitals say vaccine distribution has been chaotic.

Eduardo Munoz Alvarez / Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Health care workers across the country have started receiving COVID-19 vaccines, but doctors and nurses at some of the nation’s top hospitals are raising the alarm, charging that vaccine distribution has been unfair and a chaotic “free-for-all.”

At hospitals in Massachusetts, New York, Arizona, California and elsewhere, medical professionals say that those with the most exposure to COVID-19 patients are not always the first to get vaccinated. And others who have little or no contact with COVID-19 patients have received vaccinations.

“It definitely feels a little bit like a slap in the face,” said Jennifer DeVincent, who has been a neonatal intensive care unit nurse in the prestigious Mass General Brigham hospital system for 16 years and attends deliveries with coronavirus-positive mothers.