[ti:Some US States Seek Medical Students to Give COVID-19 Vaccines] [by:www.51voa.com] [00:00.00]更多听力请访问51VOA.COM [00:00.04]Healthcare workers across the United States [00:04.68]are busy fighting COVID-19 in overcrowded hospitals. [00:11.16]At the same time, there is a great need for medical workers [00:16.20]to give millions of newly arrived vaccine doses. [00:22.24]To take some of the pressure off the healthcare workers, [00:26.48]some U.S. states are asking medical and nursing students, [00:31.84]in some cases even firefighters, to help give the shots. [00:38.28]So far, at least seven state health departments [00:43.08]are looking for volunteers to help out at vaccination centers. [00:49.68]Departments are cooperating with local universities or nursing schools. [00:57.28]Some are offering incentives, such as lowering students' costs [01:03.76]to study and giving hands-on training to first responders. [01:10.96]COVID-19 has left more than 333,000 Americans dead [01:18.16]and caused great economic harm. [01:22.16]But the new vaccines are the best hope [01:25.04]many have to see things turn around. [01:29.04]This month, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) [01:33.60]approved the first two COVID-19 vaccines, [01:38.48]one from drug-makers Pfizer Inc and BioNTech, [01:42.92]the other from Moderna. [01:45.92]As of December 23, almost 10 million doses [01:50.88]had been shipped across the country. [01:54.72]But only about 1 million were used because of limited support [02:00.36]at hospitals and the special requirements for preparing the shots. [02:07.12]The slow start will make it difficult for the federal government [02:11.68]to reach its goal of vaccinating nearly 20 million people before the end of 2020. [02:20.48]The current vaccination programs [02:23.00]are centering mainly on frontline healthcare workers. [02:28.32]But beginning in January or February, [02:31.88]the vaccination drive is expected to expand [02:36.08]to tens of millions of essential industry workers. [02:41.88]From New York to Tennessee, states are hoping that support [02:46.40]from medical and nursing students will let medical workers turn all their efforts [02:53.12]to the record numbers of new COVID-19 patients. [02:59.28]Being able to use volunteers means the healthcare workers [03:03.88]"can continue to perform their normal duties, [03:07.68]which is crucial as our hospitalization rate has increased," [03:12.60]a spokeswoman for Indiana University's [03:16.04]School of Medicine told Reuters news agency. [03:21.64]As the first vaccines arrived, [03:24.12]Indiana health officials called on the state university [03:29.12]because its campuses are spread over a large area. [03:34.08]More than 630 of Indiana University's medical and nursing students [03:40.32]have signed up as volunteers [03:42.96]and received 90 minutes of online and hands-on training. [03:49.08]Fourth-year medical student Nicholas Clough [03:52.36]recently began giving COVID-19 vaccines to healthcare workers. [03:59.44]He has lost several family members during the pandemic. [04:04.48]"It finally felt like it was a real, [04:07.08]tangible strike back against COVID," Clough told Reuters. [04:13.52]In California, first responders have been trained [04:17.48]to give the vaccine, first to their co-workers. [04:22.52]"They have already received online training [04:25.72]and will have another one-hour live training session," said Peter Sanders, [04:31.52]a spokesman for the Los Angeles Fire Department. [04:36.56]The department was expecting doses of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. [04:43.12]Some states are not actively looking for volunteers, [04:47.04]until there are more vaccines ready for the public. [04:52.00]So far, only Massachusetts and New York [04:55.48]have changed their laws for who can give shots. [05:00.32]On December 13, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo [05:05.04]acted to permit students from medically related fields [05:09.68]to give the flu and COVID-19 shots, with supervision. [05:16.04]"We encourage all medical and nursing students to register now [05:21.20]so they will be ready when their assistance is needed," [05:24.76]a health department spokeswoman said. [05:28.64]I'm Armen Kassabian. 更多听力请访问51VOA.COM