If you had told Dr. Lawrence Zubel a year ago that he would be responsible for picking up and transporting a batch of vaccines aimed at ending a worldwide pandemic under specific delicate instructions, he likely wouldn’t have believed you. Yet, that is exactly what occurred last week as Dr. Zubel, Optometrist and acting CEO of the Uintah and Ouray Indian Health Services Clinic, found himself under the gun armed with a cooler and ice to pick up 30 Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines from the Salt Lake Airport. This particular vaccine has to be stored at 70 below zero requiring an ultracold freezer, something Indian Health Services does not yet have, explains Zubel. What this means is when the vaccine shipment left the ultracold freezer at the Phoenix Indian Medical Center the clock started. Those 30 doses had 120 hours to be injected into their intended recipients or else their destiny would take a quick detour to a trash can. And so it was that Dr. Zubel found himself ready to pick up the vaccines in Salt Lake City after they had been flown at refrigerated temperatures. “I had to bring them back in a cooler at a specific temperature which took some figuring out,” he shares. “The scariest part was not knowing whether the cooler would hold the temperature all the way back to the Uintah Basin. I probably checked the digital temperature display more than I checked my speedometer. Thankfully, once I got the cooler temperature stabilized it actually held really well.” The next day all 30 vaccines were administered, well within the required 120 hour window and Zubel was actually among the recipients. 10 doses were given to those within Indian Health Services and 20 went to members of various departments in the Tribe, all in patient care. The group will get their second dose 20 days after the first, giving Dr. Zubel the pressure of once again transporting the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccines. When asked if there was anything else worth noting, Dr. Zubel shared that the Ute Tribe Business Committee arranged for a local spiritual leader to come and provide a blessing on the Clinic, its staff, and the vaccine – a gesture all at the Clinic found touching and as a positive and hopeful experience at the end of a truly strange year. 
