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My wife and I are both internet savvy and in the 65+ age group and we have had problems getting innoculated. We signed up with the county and would have gotten our shots through them next week. However, the state legislature is pushing schools to open so the county commissioners started giving half of the vaccinations to teachers and school staff, which pushed our time back 3 to 4 weeks. Luckily, we found a Wahlgren’s that had available appointments and were able to get our shots yesterday. Anyone who does not have internet access and their own car is basically screwed in terms of getting a shot, at least in NC, and I expect it is the same in most states.
Another issue that’s emerged in Maryland: Governor Hogan is counting doses delivered to Maryland’s major hospitals in Baltimore as being “for” Baltimore’s population - but they aren’t. The hospitals serve the entire state, so only a fraction of those doses are actually being distributed in the city.
When Hogan claimed Baltimore was receiving more than their fair share - he was lying.
[I may be waiting for the vaccine a very, very, very long time. The last time I checked, Maryland was 46th in vaccine distribution - in part because Hogan is following a modified trump approach: distribute the shots by region then wash your hands of responsibility for actually getting people vaccinated.]
I hate to admit but just recently got my name on a couple of lists. I figured I was down the line, and one of the three did send me an email confirmation plus let me know I’m tier 3.
Is it just me or does anyone else want to know what was in the pandemic binders Trump threw out?
Vaccine supply is only one part of the equation. The other important part is having the personnel to administer the injections. People who are HMO members are going to the head of the line because the HMO has the facilities and personnel to get the job done.
In the battle between getting shots in arms quickly versus shots in arms equitably, I am of the firm belief that we should err on the side of speed.
A legitimate question, and you’ve put it succinctly. Thanks.
Absolutely speed is of the essence here and now but it’s obviously necessary going forward to develop national vaccine roll out methods and protocols.
With AGW and overpopulation it’s absurdly dangerous to assume this will be the last Pandemic.
It is very important to get it out as quickly as possible to limit further infections and evolution of resistant/more lethal strains. The limiting factor here in NC is vaccine availability, the governor says we have 3X the capacity to deliver vaccines as what is currently being supplied and I don’t think that includes pharmacies, which is where we got our shots.
In NC the state sets some general guidelines but the counties, who are the main players in giving the vaccines, have some say over priorities and every county is going its own way.
It’s overwhelmingly a supply problem across the country, with capacity being a secondary constraint. Here in Texas, our not-so-beloved governor is currently screwing Dallas County out of something like 56,000 doses this week on the rationale that FEMA has begun its own distribution efforts aimed at vulnerable populations in the county. So I guess our state doses are now going to places with less actual capacity to get them in arms, while our built-up distribution capacity goes to waste.
“The Have-Shots and The Have-Nots”?
You want to talk about inequity. One of my employees bought a computer program that told him when hospital websites change. Using that software program he was able to help his in laws and then for my wife and me and the others in our department over 65 book appointments. The hospital where we were able to book shots only had the announcement on its website for an hour or so. You have to be damn sophisticated and or affluent to book vaccinations.
My brother and his wife had to drive 90 miles to Miami twice to obtain their shots. Imagine if you didn’t have free time and transportation.
In Missouri it is apparently very easy to obtain a shot if you live in the bright red Republican parts of the state, but hard as hell if you live in one of the blue cities. The governor has made sure that his people are taken care of first.
Just like when the W administration paid no attention to Democrats’ warning about planes being flown into buildings, T could not possibly pay attention to Dems re pandemics. “Only I can fix it.” Dog help us.
Local jurisdictions can do a lot to ensure equity. I’ve been impressed by Detroit’s approach, led by Mayor Duggan. Early in the pandemic, he had a free test site set up at a prominent transit site that can be reached by bus as easily as by car (bus rides have been free throughout the pandemic). Everything – testing and vaccinations is by appointment. That’s how order’s been maintained and supply matched to demand.
In early summer, the City purchased a small fleet of eight specially modified Hondas – modified for safe transport of potentially infected passengers and for rapid sanitization between rides. For $1, a freshly sanitized car and driver will pick you up at your home, take your to your appointment at a drive-through test site, and return you back home. This fleet of covid-safety cars is now also carrying people to their vaccination appointments for $1.
Duggan also went out and solicited more vaccine doses from both Guv Whitmer and President Biden. And he got them.
Here’s the thing, though: Making the appointment sign-ups available to as many people as possible is essential to getting all of the available doses administered as quickly as possible. Some people are going to be in a better position to take advantage of that sign-up process than other people, and we’re better off tolerating that inequity for now than we would be in throttling back the sign-ups and devoting substantial resources to target people without cars and telephones.
How can someone not have a phone? In Detroit you can get a cell phone for free. There are free cell-phone distributors in every neighborhood and often they’re set up at the transit centers as well.
…and Detroit did all of this while still under the restrictions of its bankruptcy consent decree…
There are issues of why minority citizens do not want to get vaccinated, based on history of medical science using minorities but this affects us all. I am talking about the of the virus mutations. Dr. Fauci states that the mutations occurs when the virus copies itself, and the more is copies itself, more mutations can occur. So, if we are all vaccinated, the virus will die and not copy itself. However, if 30% of citizens refuse to get vaccinated, then the virus does not die, but mutates. There is an issue if any vaccination can fight mutations. Fauci is saying now that the vaccinates do cover the current mutations of the virus. What if there are new mutations that are in the anti-vaccinate people? And these mutations make any current vaccination ineffective. The result, we would be in the same situation as in 2020, seeing the new mutation spreading to everyone, with no effective vaccination. So, we get a new vaccination in late 2021 or early 2022, to cover the new mutation. Again, most people are vaccinated for the new mutation, but 30% refuse, minorities, and others, so we go through the same thing, over and over. Does this end when the 30% die and the virus can no longer mutate? I just don’t understand why no one is discussing this so everyone understands we must stop this virus before it mutates to a virus that can defeat the current vaccinations.
I was thinking more along the lines of how the US government would interact with state governments.
And since I’m a blue dot in a red state I wonder is there is movement to push state governments into a pandemic plan. MO is looking at reducing public health authority’s power. And at least in my county some county board members want to limit the County Executive’s authority over public health measures.