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Airman Innovates Vaccine Container at Javits

  • Published
  • By Courtesy Story
  • New York National Guard

NEW YORK – A Brooklyn artist and New York Air National Guard major teamed up to solve a problem and deliver innovation to the New York State mass vaccination mission.

New York Air National Guard Maj. Michael O’Hagan, assigned to the National Guard’s 106th Rescue Wing on eastern Long Island, joined the staff at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in January, as New York opened the mass vaccination site.

The plan was to prepare vaccines and administer upwards of 8,000 shots a day.

O’Hagan’s work at the vaccination site led to his discovery that the pharmacy staff had challenges handling trays filled with hundreds of delicate vaccine vials.

As soon as staff removed a few vaccine vials from the shipping carton they came in, the dozens of remaining vials would shift, bobble around and often tip over, making it very difficult to manage, control, protect and accurately count the remaining vials.

This posed a significant problem when vials were needed throughout the day for vaccinations administered to thousands of New Yorkers.

Javits would eventually see nearly 14,000 vaccines administered in a single day. Managing the flow of vaccine vials from deep freeze storage in the pharmacy to the vaccine floor would be a critical link to mission success, O’Hagan said.

O’Hagan took some measurements and brought home one of the pharmacy plastic bins in his best "MacGyver" effort to create a better solution for managing loose vaccine vials.
He shared his vision with a close friend, Noriko “Ruby” Taki, a Brooklyn artist, and the two began to brainstorm solutions. Taki fabricates props for movies and TV shows and uses her skills to support her passion of creating robots, aliens and more of her favorite anime and video games for cosplay.

Taki took O’Hagan’s initial vision and worked throughout the night to fabricate the Javits Center’s first vaccine control container delivered January 18th, only five days after the mission opened to the public.
“It was a smash hit,” O’Hagan said. "The doctors and pharmacists loved the containers. They took so much stress away from the pharmacy team, being able to much more easily manage, control, protect and accurately count the precious vaccine vials.”

The containers, donated by Taki for no cost, were such a hit that the pharmacy team immediately asked for more.

Each container costs about $50 in materials and requires about five hours to make by hand cutting plastic styrene sheets which are then glued together and sanded to smooth out the seams and edges to perfectly fit 100 vials, Taki said.

“They are absolutely brilliant,” said Dr. Eugene Heslin, the New York State Department of Health physician on the Javits Task Force. “They made life much easier and the way they are designed is perfect.”
She went ahead and immediately built two more containers for the Javits Mass Vaccination Site, along with another vaccine control container for the delivery of vaccines to the federal vaccine sites in Queens and Taki’s hometown of Brooklyn.

“We need to have this (vaccination process) as accurate as possible and without any droppage or any wastage, this (container) has been a godsend. Big thank you to Ruby for making this happen for us,” said Narelle Ellendon, Department of Health, Pharmacy Lead/Supervisor.

Taki herself got her chance to see her work in action when she arrived to the Javits to get her own COVID-19 vaccination.

“There was a nice surprise when I went to Javits to get the second vaccine,” she posted to her social media accounts. “The vaccine boxes I made have been used and well received in vaccination sites in New York City. I'm glad to be able to support the mission!”

O’Hagan said that Ruby received a challenge coin for her efforts and her contributions made a lasting impact on New York’s efforts to distribute vaccines.

“I was extremely proud of Ruby and the fantastic job she did of taking my idea and making it into a functional reality,” O’Hagan said. “That proved to be a great difference maker for the team of professionals working hard to vaccinate as many New Yorkers as possible.”

“Of the nearly 650,000 vaccinations administered at the Javits site, 95% of them passed through Ruby’s containers,” O’Hagan said. “Making her efforts a significant force multiplier in carrying out the mission.”