MESSAGE
| DATE | 2021-01-17 |
| FROM | Ruben Safir
|
| SUBJECT | Subject: [Hangout - NYLXS] State demandsed socialist Social Warrior Bullshit
|
https://www.wsj.com/articles/covid-19-vaccines-are-getting-stuck-at-the-last-step-11610892001?mod=hp_lead_pos7
Covid-19 Vaccines Are Getting Stuck at the Last Step
Elizabeth Findell, Jared S. Hopkins and Dan Frosch
9-11 minutes
In South Texas, a man slept in his car for two nights straight so he
wouldn’t lose his place in a line of hundreds of people at a
mass-vaccination event. In Western Kentucky, residents registered for
vaccination slots online, only to find when they arrived that their
doses had been taken by walk-ins. In New Mexico, state officials
scrambled to hire more people to staff a vaccination hotline after it
was overwhelmed with callers.
The biggest challenges in America’s Covid-19 vaccination effort have
turned out to be getting shots into the arms of the right people. As of
Friday morning, some 31 million vaccine doses had been distributed
nationwide, but only about 12 million had been administered, according
to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The federal government shipped those doses to states around the country,
with states establishing their own criteria for who should get the
vaccine first. But it has been up to local health departments, hospitals
and other providers to actually manage the tangle of logistics and many
have been unable to do so effectively.
Motorists waited in lines Friday to get vaccinated at Dodger Stadium in
Los Angeles, among the country’s mass vaccination sites.
Photo: Ringo Chiu/Zuma Press
The result is an erratic and disjointed process that is causing
frustration and confusion around the country.
Jeff Duchin, public health officer for Seattle and King County, Wash.,
said the federal government succeeded in helping fund and purchase
vaccines that were developed in record-breaking time, but said it didn’t
do nearly enough to ensure that the “last-mile” distribution efforts
would be successful.
“Operation Warp Speed gave us two Cadillac vaccines with empty gas
tanks,” he said.
Dr. Duchin said that while the county set up four clinics, it has been
difficult to link health-care workers unaffiliated with hospitals to
providers giving shots. Officials are currently planning two large-scale
vaccination sites, he said, which are complicated to organize but are
the most effective way to vaccinate teachers, transit workers, police
and the general public. If everyone needs to schedule individual
appointments, “we’ll never get there,” Dr. Duchin said.
Confusion is only increasing as many states move from immunizing
health-care workers and nursing-home residents to people over 65 years
old or with pre-existing conditions. California, Texas and Arizona are
among states initiating mass vaccination sites in locations such as
sports stadiums.
Providers across the country said they have thus far received little
guidance for how to implement eligibility criteria, no funding to manage
staffing and planning and no indication of how many doses they will
receive at any time. Oscar Alleyne, chief program officer for the
National Association of County and City Health Officials, said long
lines and jammed phones show how responsibility was thrown on local
officials without preparation.
“Most are struggling,” he said. “There is a lack of communication, a
lack of understanding with the systems that have been developed, zero
visibility into how the state plans are going to be implemented on the
local front.”
Health officials said they hoped $8 billion in a recent stimulus package
passed by the federal government would help local departments that have
been underfunded for years. President-elect Joe Biden outlined a plan on
Friday that includes federally supported community vaccination centers,
mobile clinics to reach underserved populations, funding for more
public-health workers and reimbursing states for deploying the National
Guard to distribute doses.
Covid-19 Vaccines Are Coming—So Are Hackers
0:00 / 5:20
3:34
Covid-19 Vaccines Are Coming—So Are Hackers
Covid-19 Vaccines Are Coming—So Are Hackers
As drugmakers distribute Covid-19 vaccines, cybersecurity experts are
warning against the growing threat of tampering and theft by organized
crime networks. WSJ explains how hackers are targeting the vaccine
rollout during the pandemic. Illustration: George Downs
Health officials with the Barren River District Health Department in
Bowling Green, Ky., were looking at new software systems for scheduling
appointments in mid-December when they found out doses were coming,
forcing a quick choice, said Janarae Conway, disaster preparedness
director. “We really did not have time to test it,” she said.
Administrators allowed the system to keep accepting online appointments
after they had printed out a schedule, resulting in people showing up to
see their slots were given away to walk-ins.
New Mexico secretary of health-designate Tracie Collins said her
department was hiring more personnel after people recently couldn’t get
through on phone lines when the state expanded eligibility to those over
age 75.
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS
Are you or someone you know administering the Covid-19 vaccine? Share
your story. Join the conversation below.
Texas state Rep. Vikki Goodwin said that after the state granted
eligibility to anyone over 65 on Dec. 28, her constituents rushed to
call grocery stores and pharmacies for appointments only to be told
there weren’t enough doses for that yet.
“It’s crazy that people have to call around to see what different
providers have the vaccine, rather than having a central place,” Ms.
Goodwin said. “People are thinking that we had months and months to
prepare for this.”
Meanwhile, due to issues with Texas’s provider-approval system, some
rural hospitals haven’t gotten vaccines for front-line health-care
workers, according to the Texas Organization of Rural & Community Hospitals.
In South Texas’s Rio Grande Valley, Rolando Zarate, a 54-year-old
diabetic, stocked his pickup with blankets and food before rushing to
beat others to a mass-vaccination event. He received a shot after
waiting 30 hours.
“I have been, like most of the country, worried about [Covid-19] for
nine months,” Mr. Zarate said. “I said, I don’t care how long I have to
wait.”
People waited in line to receive vaccine in Tucson, Ariz.
Photo: Cheney Orr/Bloomberg News
The disorganization has resulted in some people who aren’t eligible
getting vaccines through luck. When Seyward Darby saw a healthy,
early-30s friend in Washington, D.C., post on Instagram that he had
received one, she asked how. He said he had been picking up Hot Pockets
to eat in Safeway when the store announced it had extra doses it needed
to use, she said.
With limited guidance from states beyond the rules on who is eligible
and limited resources for outreach, vaccine providers are in some cases
not reaching everyone in the surrounding community, prompting concerns
about health equity.
Ruben Becerra, the elected executive of Hays County, south of Austin,
said some providers are focused on their own patients, excluding people
without primary-care doctors.
“Some facilities have said ‘Well, you need to have a relationship with
us and we need to do an assessment before we give you the vaccine,’” he
said.
In Washington, D.C., Dana Mueller, director of adult and family medicine
at Mary’s Center, said the district has been submitting lists of people
who signed up to get vaccines to the health center 24 hours in
advance—not enough time for staff to set up an automated reminder call
system. That has led to confusion over when people are supposed to show
up and whether they have confirmed slots, Dr. Mueller said.
“It’s still very localized,” Dr. Mueller said. “It’s the small-scale
effort that makes it feel like you’re going to be vaccinating people for
years.”
Write to Elizabeth Findell at Elizabeth.Findell-at-wsj.com, Jared S.
Hopkins at jared.hopkins-at-wsj.com and Dan Frosch at dan.frosch-at-wsj.com
--
So many immigrant groups have swept through our town
that Brooklyn, like Atlantis, reaches mythological
proportions in the mind of the world - RI Safir 1998
http://www.mrbrklyn.com
DRM is THEFT - We are the STAKEHOLDERS - RI Safir 2002
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Being so tracked is for FARM ANIMALS and extermination camps,
but incompatible with living as a free human being. -RI Safir 2013
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