toll dr meshia wallace a pulmonary physician talks about her experiences treating covid19 patients dec 10 2020 in opelika ala julie bennettap in a briefing on dec 16 army general gustave perna the coo of operation warp speed the trump administrations program to accelerate vaccine rollout described minor mishaps with delivery in alabama including when shipments of the vaccine arrived but had been stored at the wrong temperature since the impact of storing the vaccine at the wrong temperature is unclear the vials were not used and were shipped back to pfizer when covid came i felt like we were pushed back another two decades said fouadcovid impacted our rural underserved communities in our cities much more than anybody else in addressing the disparities of access to vaccines for rural communities the alabama department of public health is working with rural health clinics federally qualified health care centers county health departments and other providers to provide access to covid19 vaccines statewide according to a statement provided by chief medical officer mary g mcintyre fouad said that lessons learned from the states oversight during covid with limited testing access and few quarantine options for underserved rural communities served as a continuum in informing state public health leaders decisionmaking on vaccine rollout now that the vaccine is out we dont want to make the same mistakes she added abc news mark nichols contributed to this report