Another state made the mistake of following the CDC guidelines for Covid-19 vaccine distribution. The result? Vaccines are wasted in storage or thrown out. The Baton Rouge State-Times reported yesterday reports:
When coronavirus vaccines first began arriving in Louisiana in December, Gov. John Bel Edwards said they would be swiftly shot into the arms of the state's residents in a major step toward eventually ending the pandemic. The biggest complication was said to be a lack of doses from the federal government.
But almost a month into the vaccination effort, thousands of doses shipped into the state are still sitting in ultracold storage warehouses and hospital refrigerators - despite massive demand from older residents and others awaiting protection from the virus.
Many states have struggled with the rollout of their vaccines, but Louisiana has done particularly poorly. According to the state and federal data compiled by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Louisiana has distributed just 28% of the roughly 266,000 doses it received from Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc., the two companies whose creations were authorized for emergency use last month by the Food and Drug Administration.
As of Friday, Louisiana ranks 36th out of 50 states and the District of Columbia for distributing its allotment, an improvement from the week before. In the early weeks of distribution, the state stood in the bottom 10.
The CDC states the vaccine should be given to health care workers before nursing home residents, the elderly, and others who are most vulnerable to the virus. Governor John Bel Edwards dutifully followed the guidelines but left no wiggle room for unused vaccines if health care workers didn't use them.
Interviews with state officials, epidemiologists, doctors and hospital executives indicate that Louisiana's early rollout was slowed by miscalculations about how many health care workers would quickly sign up for the shots. That problem, already wrapped inside a complicated logistical puzzle, was further compounded by strict eligibility rules that made it hard in the earliest days of the rollout to shift doses to others desperate to get them.
State officials also didn't begin allowing more people to access the vaccine until after the doses were already piling up, leaving a surplus.
In one case, more than 13,500 doses were left at the state's Shreveport distributor for weeks because smaller hospitals hadn't been able to make use of them....
Numbers don't lie:
Ochsner: 61,575 doses received, 30,324 given
LCMC Health (NOLA): 8,200 doses received, Slightly more than 2,000 vaccines given
Our Lady of Lake: 10,000 doses received, 7,000 given
The newspaper continued:
But in interviews this week, officials at a half-dozen Louisiana hospitals and hospital systems said an early reluctance by staff to take the shots left them oversupplied almost from the outset. Dr. Catherine O'Neal, Our Lady of the Lake's chief medical officer, said in the early weeks, she was spending chunks of time dispelling misinformation among staff around side effects or adverse reactions.
''I had to keep going back and checking social media to debunk all of the rumors I was hearing,'' she said.
Confidence in the vaccine has increased among staff after seeing that the first group of employees to receive them has been fine, leaders at multiple hospitals said. Now, many in the first group are onto their second dose. But some health care workers, even if they generally trust vaccines, are still reluctant.
While the thousands of doses sat in hospitals waiting for a home, regular folks want the vaccine, internet conspiracies be damned:
Meanwhile, many older patients have grown frustrated over the past week after the state announced that starting Monday, people older than 70 would be able to receive vaccinations at local pharmacies. Only 10,500 doses are currently available, and the pharmacies quickly began using waitlists after demand overran supply in the first hours....
Smaller hospitals didn't have the required freezer for the Pfizer vaccine. Such freezers costs $20,000 or more. The states that followed strict priority guidelines have had the most problems rolling out the vaccine. Imagine.
Experts said part of the problem might have been too rigid guidelines from the Health Department in the earliest weeks of the rollout, which meant that doses were distributed casually to only a small group while others were itching to receive it. Josh Michaud, associate director for global health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, said it's been an issue across the U.S.
''Those places that have had a little bit more flexibility in their approach and pivot more quickly … have probably done a little bit better than states that have been more rigid,'' he said.
For instance, places such as Connecticut and Washington, D.C., allowed vaccines to be used on a wider group of people and have seen somewhat better results.
Starting to see why Texas and Florida threw the CDC guidelines in the trash?
27 comments:
Maybe we should ask Fauci how to proceed? He walks on water and has advice available for almost any issue one encounters in life.
Isn't it interesting that the guidelines from the CDC (made up of physicians, etc.) are that healthcare workers get the vaccine first?
Meanwhile a for profit urgent care clinic would sell out of vaccine every morning before noon.
This is why capitalism and medicine work so well together. And nothing works well with communism except graft and corruption. If a politician was getting a bribe then those vaccines disappear. But this isnt the movie Contagion and nobody is desperate for the cold vaccine.
Massive tragedy. And it continues to unfold.
Many seniors thought it a great idea that younger healthcare workers would get the vaccine first, making healthcare facilities "safe" for them. So that when they break their hip or have a heart attack, the medical centers would be a "safe" place to go.
A few problems with this train of misled thought. First, many of the young healthcare workers had already been asymtpmatically infected and didn't need the vaccine. Second, many healthcare workers have refused taking the vaccine. Third, although we hope it is true, there is no evidence that having taken the vaccine, you can't be infected or a carrier. Fourth, many healthcare workers who have been vaccinated won't have quit the same motivation to keep using those sloppy, hard to work with N95s.
We have a perfect storm. Seniors, especially those over 60, now thinking they will have a "safe" healthcare system, will be fooled. With up to one third of patients now being Covid positive (in Jackson and elsewhere), going to the hospital now may become a death sentence. Even for that broken hip.
The rest of the western world, and Israel, aren't following this deadly nonsense. They are vaccinating the oldest first, 90+, and continuing with 80+ then 70+, etc. Today it was announced that Israel has vaccinated 80% of all 70+ and 72% of all 60+.
Their elderly will, moving forward, not die of Covid. Their hospitalizations will drop. Their hospitals will now be "safe." Because they are "safe."
The US will continue to allow its seniors to die of Covid. Ugly scene unfolding.
Any health care worker that comes into contact with patients should be mandated to get the vaccine in order to keep doing their job. It should not be optional. We aren't going to get this under control until we can get herd immunity through vaccination. Older people's immune systems are not as robust and will have a greater likelihood of getting the disease even after vaccination. We have to get to the point where they are unlikely to be exposed to it in the first place.
Damn KF! You have a panel of self-annointed experts (on any subject) that are always eager to share their "objective" views on medicine, law, politics, etc. And every single one of them is so eager to listen to the other side's point of view and show respect for the other "expert's" point of view. And, each and every one of them is very self-aware that he/she may have a tiny bit of bias in his/her view.
@11:45 Sadly, no hospital or clinic or medical center in Jackson has made the vaccination a condition of employment.
@12:23 You said nothing. Zero. Why did you write anything? Din't waste our time writing nothing.
The deep state progressives in government want the elderly to die off sooner rather than later, as the elderly tend to be conservative voters.
Ok 1145,
"Older people's immune systems are not as robust and will have a greater likelihood of getting the disease even after vaccination."
First I've heard of this nugget. Would love a link. We need science backed by evidence-based data....not made up shit like surface transmission.
Interesting that kingfish targets Louisiana and uses the state of Florida as a shining beacon.
Louisiana has vaccinated 2.8% of the population. Florida has vaccinated 2.9%. Texas is the same as Florida. 2.9%. Good ole’ GBE bashing because he’s a democrat.
You neglected to mention Mississippi... another republican stronghold who is a full 1% lower than even Louisiana.
Well, I reckon people just don't want it.
All of my family in La who are 65 and older have gotten the 1st shot or are scheduled to do so this week.
DAMN RIGHT 11:22
Give it to a for profit clinic.
They get a product free (the government is paying the cost of the vaccine)
They get paid by the government for giving the shots
They make the money.
I'm all for for-profit vs government in 90+% of the time. I'm for using the yellow pages to determine if the government should be providing certain services.
But - in this case, your analogy stinks. First off, many of the centers that are distributing the vaccine are for profit - lets start with the two biggest, CVS and Walgreens.
That's not the problem here. I couold get rid of any vaccine I could get my hands on if there were no priority set. Hell, in California the rich movie stars are buying their way in line, just as they tried to do to get their spoiled rich kids into Ivy League schools.
Hey - under your theory those for-profit clinics would be able to double down. Give the vaccine (again, no cost in the supply) to those that would pay a little under the table (cover that low fee that the feds were paying). Damn right - they would get the vaccine out quickly. To the rich, healthy folks - not to the first responders, the health care workers, the elderly, etc.
Yes, the CDC did set some guidelines ----- they are just that, 'guidelines'. States did not have to follow them absolutely and withouot local considerations.
And I thought that (D) John Bell in LA was so perfect. A 'moderate' democrat that could do no wrong. Guess the curtain dropped and found the wizard was a fake.
I'm glad to see that Tater has recognized the fallicy of the stringent guidelines and opened up the priority classifications here in my home state of Mississippi. Expanded past the immediate needs (health care workers - yes, I agree those that are going in to work every day surrounded by folks that have COVID should get extra consideration; first responders, etc.) Then went to more than just those in nursing homes but to those over 75. Followed by those over 65. What has been determined - and even acknowledged by the idiots that think COVID is a nothing burger, unless of course you are old -- should be in a priority category.
Now I know why people are dying, all you Doctors are on this site and not taking care of people.
Who gives a rat's ass about what goes on in Louisiana? We're enjoying our own Cluster-Fuck right here in Mississippi.
We're like chickens in a hen house waiting to be fed, and, of course Sanderson is on Tater's Advisory Board. See what I did with that irony?
OK 1:27, how about this.
"The vaccine is less effective in older people, the FDA analysis finds. For people ages 18 to less than 65, the effectiveness is 96%, compared with 86% for people 65 and older."
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2020/12/15/946554638/fda-analysis-of-moderna-covid-19-vaccine-finds-it-effective-and-safe
You can apologize any time.
517,
Gramps needs to take ownership of his/her circumstances. Just don't get around people who aren't vaccinated.
Wow! Mind blown.
11:45 - your theory fails because getting the vaccine only protects one from catching COVID. It doesn't eliminate the ability to transmit the virus.
@3:06
If you can't get to your point in a paragraph, then I am not reading your bloviations. Sorry but you are commenting on someone else's blog. You should start your own blog if you want to be long winded. And we can proceed to ignore it too.
6:27 Go back to my original post at 11:45 and you'll see I specifically said healthcare workers should have to be vaccinated.
I'm up for suggestions as to how gramps is going to know when he is going to have a heart attack or fall and break his hip so he can avoid unvaccinated doctors, nurses, and administrative staff. My mind will really be blown if you can tell me that.
NY City bnow has 5 Super-Sites giving vaccines 24 hours a day.
Radical, don't you think.
Meanwhile, Tate would not allow a vaccine center in Hinds County. Hmmmmm . . .
Where and what number can one call in the state of Mississippi to inquire as to scheduling. Number please. Thanks.
Um, NY is having some problems. Go look it up.
931,
I’m giving you a blank stare. You’re all over the place. Quit moving the goalposts.
10:13 What goalposts are moving? I've consistently said healthcare workers should be required to be vaccinated before being allowed to see patients. Many of those patients are older and vaccinations are less effective on them. I backed that statement up with evidence from the FDA showing vaccinated older people have more than triple the rate of documented infection as younger people (14% versus 4%).
This isn't about "muh freedumb", it's about protecting those that have no choice but to come into contact with medical personnel out of necessity.
98 new deaths reported today. We had a brief peak of about 35 per day back in July. Now we have been holding that same amount for the last three weeks with no sign of slowing down. Nursing home residents are down to a third of the victims, this is killing the community now.
We will easily hit over 6,000 deaths, and probably more, before the first year is complete. That's one out of every 500 Mississippians dead in a year. COVID will be very close to the #1 cause of death. Nothing worse than the flu, right?
Yes, NY is having problems. And one solution this week is to open 24 hour sites.
Why don't we do this.
Our 80 year olds are spending 3 hours in a car, with Depends diapers on, to get the shot.
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