Wes Wallace, MD, and G.W. Barker, Jr., RN, are both members of North Carolina 1 (NC-1), a federal Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) based in North Carolina.
Wes Wallace, MD, emeritus and adjunct professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine, and G.W. Barker Jr., RN, a nurse in the Emergency Department at the UNC Hospitals Hillsborough Campus, recently deployed to Arizona to administer COVID-19 vaccinations.
Wallace and Barker are both members of North Carolina 1 (NC-1), a federal Disaster Medical Assistance Team (DMAT) based in North Carolina. In partnership with FEMA, and at the request of the state of Arizona, their team deployed to a rural area south of Phoenix.
“Getting vaccine into arms may be the best use of my medical skills at this moment,” Wallace said. “Our North Carolina-based disaster medical assistance team gave close to 8,000 injections, mostly to residents of a large, sparsely populated county south of Phoenix. It was a pleasure and an honor to represent the National Disaster Medical System and UNC to the people of southern Arizona.”
“Through NC-1 DMAT and DHHS I was able to be a part of a large effort to help vaccinate people in Arizona,” Barker said. “Those our team encountered were very thankful for our efforts. A special thanks go to the UNC System and my family for their understanding and support for our deployment to help others.”