L-R: Director of Island Outreach Douglas Cornman, Director of Island Health Services Sharon Daley, RN, Nurse Peggy Akers, and Assistant to the Island Health Services Director Margaret Snell enroute aboard a mail boat to give Covid booster shots on Maine islands.
NORTHEAST HARBOR, ME — Island Health Services Director Sharon Daley, RN no sooner completed a multi-island run aboard the Sunbeam administering flu shots, when the Mission received a CDC green light to administer Covid vaccination boosters among certain island communities.
Sharon and fellow Sunbeam crew member, Director of Island Outreach & Chaplain Douglas Cornman, are members of the Mission Covid Vaccination Team. In three months, starting in February 2021, that team Covid vaccinated 343 people on seven islands.
On November 1, Douglas said, “Last week, in less than 48-hours, Sharon, Administrative Assistant Margaret Snell, and I, scheduled Covid booster shot trips to seven islands. We secured vaccine. We put fliers together announcing the vaccine booster is available, and posted them on the islands,” Douglas said.
The response from island communities was instantaneous.
“Over the weekend we had over 50 people contact me requesting their booster. In two weeks we’ll be doing boosters on those seven islands. We will have given everyone their booster before their Thanksgiving holiday,” said Douglas.
It’s Thank you Thursday. Today’s shout out of Mission love goes to the entire Mission Covid Vaccine Team.
Mission President John Zavodny, Island Health Services Director Sharon Daley, Island Outreach Director & Chaplain Douglas Cornman, and Mission Board member, Jill Goldthwait express their thanks during a mini-Sunbeam “thank you” cruise to the many good people who helped make a success the months long vaccination clinics on the several islands.
Maureen Giffin, RN, Peggy Akers, NP, EMTs, boat captains, pharmacists, and to everyone who said, “Yes” – we will do what it takes to get this done – thank you. With your help and knowledge 343 people were vaccinated over a three-month period.
Sharon Daley, director of Maine Seacoast Mission’s Island Health Services, walks toward the Sunbeam, the Maine Seacoast Mission’s service boat, in Northeast Harbor, Maine, in August. (Ellie Markovitch/for The Washington Post)
www.washingtonpost.com National Patients and doctors who embraced telehealth during the pandemic fear it will become harder to access
The most remote island communities have long relied on the nonprofit Maine Seacoast Mission to show up in its 75-foot steel-hulled floating clinic, the Sunbeam V.
The mission’s nurse, Sharon Daley, coordinates with mainland doctors, sometimes consulting with out-of-state specialists like vascular neurologist Anand Viswanathan of Massachusetts General Hospital, who accompanied her on a recent trip to meet patients he usually sees online.
Daley’s experience with everything from unreliable Internet access to physicians’ state-based licensing arrangements is central to a today’s debates in Washington. But day-to-day, her focus is less on policy than on integrating the tools of technology with the traditions of good care — a challenge that all practitioners face as they adapt to telehealth.
NORTHEAST HARBOR, ME – We invite you to watch this video portrait of the Mission medical team’s Covid vaccination work on remote Maine islands earlier this year. This video is part of a Walgreens public service announcement series depicting Covid-19 responses in different parts of the nation.
This story features Island Health Services Director Sharon Daley, RN – who co-led the Mission’s Covid-19 medical response team, with Douglas Cornman, Island Outreach Director and Chaplain – and supporting nurse, Maureen Griffin.
federalnewsnetwork.com BUSINESS NEWS Boat, snowmobile, camel: Vaccine reaches world’s far corners By DAVID SHARP – April 7, 2021 1:06 am
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — After enduring 40-knot winds and freezing sea spray, jostled health care providers arrived wet and cold on two Maine islands in the North Atlantic late last month to conduct coronavirus vaccinations.
As they came ashore on Little Cranberry Island, population 65, residents danced with excitement.
“It’s a historic day for the island,” said Kaitlyn Miller, who joined a friend in belting out “I’m not giving away my shot!” from the Broadway show Hamilton when the crew arrived.
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