Dallas City Council Members Say People Confused About COVID-19 Vaccine Rollout

Updated at 6:20 p.m. to include more meeting details.

Dallas officials say residents remain confused by the COVID-19 vaccination process.

Residents are not alone. Some city council members said on Monday they were facing their own frustrations with public and internal communication about the deployment.

Several council members said Dallas County’s communication issues on how and when people can get vaccinated at the Fair Park megasite, as well as the mayor’s tendency to reveal updates via a statement press releases, resulted in gaps in people’s information and their contribution to the fact that residents were not helped because As quickly as possible.

“The confusion is going to get worse and there could be anger,” said board member David Blewett. “Frankly, I don’t think we’re all on the same page, and it’s pretty obvious we’re not.

“I just don’t think we’re doing a very good job.”

The city and county are trying to ensure that the most vulnerable residents can register for and receive COVID-19 vaccines, but the demand for the vaccines is far greater than the supply. Preliminary data also shows disparities.

The mass vaccination site was set up to address the lack of licensed vaccine providers in South Dallas, where residents have been heavily affected by the virus.

As of Monday, more than 380,000 people had registered with Dallas County to receive the vaccine at Fair Park, and more than 18,800 doses had been administered since the site opened on Jan. 11.

The city will receive its own direct allocation of 5,000 doses from the state and plans to start administering injections on Thursday.

Rocky Vaz, director of emergency management in Dallas, said the city plans to immunize frontline healthcare workers, people 65 and older, and those with chronic illnesses. Drive-thru will be set up in a parking garage at the Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center downtown. He promised clear communication on how people are selected to receive the doses, when to enter and when to return for their second injection.

Vaz also said there will be a “frequently asked questions” section on the city’s website and a dedicated staff member to brief council members. At this point, he said, the data showed that proximity to vaccination centers does not equate to better access to vaccines.

“We can plan these locations where we want, but the challenge is we don’t have vaccines,” Vaz said. “Even if we create sites, [residents] still have to go through the registration process, and there is no guarantee that they will have the lowest priority to obtain vaccines at a particular site. “

Access to vaccine

Chad Council Members West, Adam Bazaldua and Paula Blackmon said they called a special meeting Monday night to discuss the vaccine distribution process, how council members communicate with each other and whether to give the city manager more authority TC Broadnax during a state of emergency.

At the meeting, which passed midnight, the council voted 10-5 to allow Broadnax to allow the use of city staff, laptops, personal protective equipment and other city ​​resources to help set up sites where people can register for immunization appointments. .

West, Bazaldua and Blackmon were among six council members who asked Broadnax last week for city staff to help set up registration centers in their districts. At this point, they said, the online registration process had favored people with computers and reliable internet access.

Johnson told Broadnax to ignore requests from board members, saying board members should have come to see him and the data should determine where the recording sites are.

Johnson later announced that the city would establish vaccination registration sites in “underserved areas of the city”. As of Tuesday, the public had still not been informed of the location of these sites and when they opened.

Council members have either set up contextual registration events or are working to do so. West, working with county officials and community volunteers, hosted three registration events in North Oak Cliff last week, where more than 700 people have signed up to be vaccinated, he said. .

Bazaldua said in Monday’s meeting that he was collecting 20 county laptops to hold registration events in his district. He accused Johnson of holding the city’s laptops “hostage”.

Emergency state

In a 10-4 vote, council rejected a proposal that would have called on Johnson to provide bi-weekly public updates to council on the city’s emergency response. Bazaldua did not vote.

A separate proposal, to designate Broadnax as the City of Dallas’ emergency response coordinator during the pandemic, was withdrawn after some debate.

State law designates Johnson, in his role as mayor, as the one who oversees Dallas’ disaster response, giving it emergency powers such as developing and organizing plans for the use of city facilities, staff, equipment and other resources.

The mayor is authorized to select another official to coordinate the response. The coordinator’s tasks include recommending areas to be evacuated and establishing curfews. Johnson chose Vaz for the role. Vaz, along with the rest of the town’s staff, generally reports to Broadnax. But for questions related to the city’s response to COVID-19 under the state of emergency, Vaz reports directly to the mayor.

Board member Carolyn King Arnold said Broadnax was easier to work with than Johnson and more accountable to city council because they hired him. She said Johnson generally does not communicate with board members outside of emails, public meetings and press conferences. She said she and the mayor had not spoken for a year.

“We just have to stop playing and face the fact that what we have here is this constant battle, the fighting and the refusal of the mayor’s office to work with the city manager,” she said.

Johnson did not respond to his statement and gave no indication during the meeting that he would change the way he communicates with board members. Public clashes between the mayor and several council members have occurred intermittently throughout the past year, including during the budget debate.

On Monday, the mayor has said on several occasions that he believes the meeting is unnecessary. He also said that if he understood why some would prefer Broadnax to have more authority in disasters, if they wanted state of emergency processes to change, they should ‘talk to the legislature’. .

“The reality is that in a disaster, the mayor – whoever he is – is the director of emergency management,” Johnson said, “and the emergency management coordinator is whoever the mayor chooses. “