How is vaccination going where you are?

[AngB]

One thought as well... The Pfizer vaccine comes in packages with 975 doses, so in some of the very small population counties, they can cover the whole population with just a few packages. The example above from MO - it looks like they received 2 packages (1950 doses) and then had to figure out how to get them out. Yes, the rural areas (which tend to be more red) are going to get more doses per capita at first just due to the vast difference in populations.

They actually had a follow up news story on this today. It turns out that the "city"/town that was given 2000 doses has a population of 65. Not 65 K. 65 people. I am not saying people in rural areas shouldn't have access to vaccines also but I can't imagine how they thought they were going to use 2000 doses (or 1950..) in an area with a population of 65!

[o_mom]

They actually had a follow up news story on this today. It turns out that the "city"/town that was given 2000 doses has a population of 65. Not 65 K. 65 people. I am not saying people in rural areas shouldn't have access to vaccines also but I can't imagine how they thought they were going to use 2000 doses (or 1950..) in an area with a population of 65!

A little misleading to say the "area" had a population of 65. The county has a population of 12,000+.

Any time you deal with logistics on this scale there will be issues.

[AngB]

A little misleading to say the "area" had a population of 65. The county has a population of 12,000+.

Any time you deal with logistics on this scale there will be issues.

Per the news story I read:

"Two hours south of St. Louis another state vaccine event had more shots than patients. In Leopold, Missouri — population 65 — KFVS-TV reporter Alayna Chapie posted on Facebook that as of 4:40 in the afternoon of the 1,950 available doses only 648 had been administered."
https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/he...7-515fdcbd2980

They should have never sent them two packages of vaccines. I seriously doubt they had even a hundred people make appointments and then they had to know by at least noon they were going to have nearly all their vaccines leftover and could have/should have been announcing it much earlier in the day (at least for the priority tiers) to use them. (it was after they opened it up to everyone/anyone and word started spreading around FB- although not till 2pm which is too late for many people to get there that they started actually using up some shots..) I totally understand that it's not going to be perfect but it doesn't have to go this badly where at a "mass vaccination" event they don't even use half their doses while meanwhile we are making 90+ year olds travel for hours to be able to get vaccinated because it's still extremely difficult to get except in the rural areas.

[basil]

I asked all my 65+ patients yesterday (20 people) if they had gotten the vaccine yet and most of the white people had scheduled or gotten one dose. A lot of the Black and Latino people were trying but struggling to schedule. It was really sad.

[o_mom]

Per the news story I read:

"Two hours south of St. Louis another state vaccine event had more shots than patients. In Leopold, Missouri — population 65 — KFVS-TV reporter Alayna Chapie posted on Facebook that as of 4:40 in the afternoon of the 1,950 available doses only 648 had been administered."
https://www.ksdk.com/article/news/he...7-515fdcbd2980

They should have never sent them two packages of vaccines. I seriously doubt they had even a hundred people make appointments and then they had to know by at least noon they were going to have nearly all their vaccines leftover and could have/should have been announcing it much earlier in the day (at least for the priority tiers) to use them. (it was after they opened it up to everyone/anyone and word started spreading around FB- although not till 2pm which is too late for many people to get there that they started actually using up some shots..) I totally understand that it's not going to be perfect but it doesn't have to go this badly where at a "mass vaccination" event they don't even use half their doses while meanwhile we are making 90+ year olds travel for hours to be able to get vaccinated because it's still extremely difficult to get except in the rural areas.

Yes, that news story is misleading (and I would say that it is obvious enough that it is intentional on the part of the reporter). Leopold is in Bollinger County, which has over 12k residents.

They still should not have been sent that many doses. Not sure who though it was a good idea, and they botched the implementation. Maybe they thought could do all the eligible people in the county in one day and then move on? Who knows.

[niccig]

I asked all my 65+ patients yesterday (20 people) if they had gotten the vaccine yet and most of the white people had scheduled or gotten one dose. A lot of the Black and Latino people were trying but struggling to schedule. It was really sad.

A friend was able to vaccinate through our county and she said it took her hours to schedule an appointment. Not everyone has the time or resources to sit on the computer to get an appointment.


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[carolinamama]

I signed up to volunteer making calls to people 65+ in our state to help them get registered for the vaccine. The training webinar is tomorrow and I'm super curious how they anticipate it will go, how we can get people signed up in their area.

In my immediate county anyway, it seems like all the sudden there are more opportunities for those eligible. Previously it was all through the large healthcare systems and you needed myChart, which made it especially hard for non-tech savvy seniors. My dad has no tech deficiencies but he spent hours, often setting his alarm for the middle of the night to check online for appointments. No one should have to go through all that. The county is holding multiple mass vaccine clinics this week and Walgreens is taking appointments. Not saying it's good, but better so I'm feeling some hope.

[zukeypur]

I signed up to volunteer making calls to people 65+ in our state to help them get registered for the vaccine. The training webinar is tomorrow and I'm super curious how they anticipate it will go, how we can get people signed up in their area.

In my immediate county anyway, it seems like all the sudden there are more opportunities for those eligible. Previously it was all through the large healthcare systems and you needed myChart, which made it especially hard for non-tech savvy seniors. My dad has no tech deficiencies but he spent hours, often setting his alarm for the middle of the night to check online for appointments. No one should have to go through all that. The county is holding multiple mass vaccine clinics this week and Walgreens is taking appointments. Not saying it's good, but better so I'm feeling some hope.

That's nice of you to volunteer. I listen to Up First podcast, and on Sundays they have a special podcast. This past Sunday it was interviewing the person in charge of the vaccination campaign in West Virginia. They are doing signup by phone, which is easier for seniors to use. It was a very good listen.

[AngB]

Yes, that news story is misleading (and I would say that it is obvious enough that it is intentional on the part of the reporter). Leopold is in Bollinger County, which has over 12k residents.

They still should not have been sent that many doses. Not sure who though it was a good idea, and they botched the implementation. Maybe they thought could do all the eligible people in the county in one day and then move on? Who knows.

They said they would give the doses to another county and none would be wasted but is that actually possible? I thought once it's thawed it has to be used in x hours? And not sure how they could say they had 1950 doses to give out if they weren't thawed already...?

Hopefully this got enough press that they'll figure out a better way in the future. I definitely am not arguing that rural counties shouldn't get any shots. I just think it should be proportional to their population and how many people actually even want the shots. Surely they could have split one package between a couple rural counties and still probably had extra.

[hwin708]

I have volunteered on the signup phone banks and at the city-run distribution sites. It's actually incredibly easy for the volunteers. In part because they overstaff on volunteers, so individual jobs become "you are checking people off a list" and "you are welcoming people at the door and pointing them to a chair." Each task I have done as a volunteers is easily explained in minutes.

My city's volunteer corps partnered with 311 to handle the registration. It worked very well because they basically just piggy-backed off 311's system already in place. And 311 handled the initial start, before it was streamlined and handed off to volunteers as the rollout increased. People can register by calling 311 or going to the 311 website. For volunteering, it was basically just simple data entry. You are reading out the form people would be using on the website. What's your name, date of birth, address etc. Spelling errors are not super important. (That's one of the volunteer jobs at the distribution center - having people check over their forms for any errors.) The computer system automatically determines their eligibility based on age or their answers to various other questions, and then the software pulls up the available dates and you schedule them. If there were no dates available, they automatically go on a waitlist for a call or email when more appointments open. If they are not eligible, they automatically go on a waitlist for when the system determines they are eligible.

For the data entry, there was a training session for the LINKS system, but really - so so easy. I hear from so many people about how nice the 311 vaccine operators are when they call, but it makes sense. Volunteers work 4.5 hour shifts with little to no stress. It's very easy to stay upbeat and helpful when the system isn't overburdened.