Sonoma County firefighters receive COVID-19 vaccine
Not every job asks you to drive toward your death every day.
But these days – in the days of the COVID-19 pandemic – that’s pretty much status quo for first responders.
“Our first responders have no choice but to be exposed to COVID-positive people,” said Mark Heine, Chief for the Sonoma County Fire Protection District. “When we get a 911 call, we are going up against an illness that kills people. We are transporting a person with a virus that kills people.”
Heine is the chief of nine stations covering Windsor, Santa Rosa, Calistoga and Guerneville. The men and women in his crews aren’t just fire fighters. They’re EMT professionals answering the hundreds of daily 911 distress calls populating the local PulsePoint app. They’re the first on the scene when you have a stroke, asthma attack or broken bone.
“It’s the majority of what we do,” Heine said.
Bodega Bay Fire Protection District’s Assistant Chief Steve Herzberg agreed.
“What we do every day is EMR. And what we have to presume is every patient we touch has COVID.”
As approval for the COVID-19 vaccine neared, the County began to form its distribution plan of 4,875 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. It followed the recommendations made by the Centers for Disease Control and California Department of Public Health, which categorizes the general population into three phases, and each phase is further broken down into tiered categories. These tiered categories – three in all – prioritize vaccine recipients by vulnerability and risk.
Sonoma County’s first phase kicked off Dec. 18 with Sutter Santa Rosa Regional Hospital, quickly followed by Kaiser Permanente Regional Hospital. Throughout the county, staff in long term healthcare facilities, primary care clinics, specialty clinics, laboratory workers, urgent care clinics, rural health centers, dental clinics and pharmacies began receiving the vaccination.
But not firefighters (or police officers, for that matter, also considered first responders), who are in the second tier under the county’s plan.
Herzberg and Heine sat in meeting on Friday with their colleagues to also learn that first responders would not be vaccinated at the hospitals.
“We’ve had fire departments hit with cases and tested positive,” Heine said. “And many of us have had to quarantine. If or when we have direct exposure with a patient, we’re out. If a department takes too many hits, we’re taking guys out from time off. Everyone’s working long hours. It’s not just taking a physical toll, there’s a huge mental toll, too.”
While the County offered solutions, the team spurred into action.
“They said ‘Give us a couple weeks and I said, ‘Give me a couple days,’” Heine said.
Heine yoked Santa Rosa’s Melissa Leonelly and Chris Schroeder with Brian Henrickson of American Medical Response (AMR) the county’s private ambulance provider to determine how to effectively vaccinate each other. Together, the trio united the City of Santa Rosa Fire, Sonoma Valley Fire District, Petaluma Fire Department, Bodega Bay Fire and Sonoma County Fire Protection District collaborate with one another to create and staff a clinic to provide 1,400 vaccinations to EMT providers over the next 10 days.
“The collaboration was remarkable and it shows the importance of working together, regardless of the patch you wear, especially in these crazy times,” Heine said.
More than 150 first responders received vaccinations on Dec. 22, including Heine and Herzberg.
“It’s cool. We work on calls and we work on fires together but to work on something like this, it’s really pretty special,” Herzberg said. “We formed this alliance. We staffed it. We did it over a weekend. We’ve implemented best practices and we’re setting a good example for the public.”
Heine echoed Herzberg: “The public should take comfort in the program, especially as we’re seeing huge spikes in the number of COVID calls.”
