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Officials in Montgomery County, Md., Say they hope to start rolling out the coronavirus vaccine to people aged 75 and older as part of phase 1b of the state’s vaccination plans, but this demand still far exceeds the meager supply of vaccines provided by the state.
Officials in Montgomery County, Md., Say they hope to start rolling out the coronavirus vaccine to people aged 75 and older as part of phase 1b of the state’s vaccination plans, but this demand still far exceeds the meager supply of vaccines provided by the state.
Since a pre-registration website for people aged 75 and over went live last Friday, more than 68,000 people have signed up to be alerted by the county when appointments for the elderly. begin.
Meanwhile, as the county continued to vaccinate thousands of health workers, the county received only 7,300 new first doses of the coronavirus vaccine this week, officials said.
It’s an impossible math problem that leads to the frustration of county officials and residents who are anxious to get vaccinated.
“If I seem frustrated with this just know that my real frustration is 10 times what you are seeing right now,” said Dr Travis Gayles, the county health official. “The system is not fit to do what we need to do. “
It estimated that there were more than 70,000 people aged 75 and over in the county eligible for the coronavirus vaccine, and 170,000 to 280,000 people over 65.
“And I get 7,000 doses a week to distribute. The math doesn’t add up, ”Gayles said, adding,“ We’re working hard to get your doses. Believe me; we don’t want to fire anyone. We want everyone to be covered immediately, to protect you. But we are working with limited resources. “
Gayles said he “hoped” the county would be able to move forward with vaccinating people 75 and older next week.
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Limited dose supply status
Overall, Maryland receives about 72,000 doses of the federal government’s coronavirus vaccine each week – a number that is unlikely to change for at least the next few weeks.
Of that number, only about half is disbursed to two dozen local health departments across Maryland for distribution to the public, officials said.
However, Governor Larry Hogan recently decided to expand the eligibility criteria. This week, according to these new guidelines, Marylanders aged 75 and older were eligible to be vaccinated. Next week, starting January 25, people aged 65 to 74 are eligible according to state guidelines.
Montgomery County officials have been clear they don’t have enough vaccine doses to start vaccinating older adults this week, even though other jurisdictions, such as Prince George County, have decided to do so. make.
“So he’s going to create a group that thinks they’re immediately eligible for the vaccine,” Elrich said of the governor’s announcements. “They are eligible, but it does not increase the amount of vaccine beyond 7,000 new doses. So I can put you in a line where you weren’t before. But that doesn’t mean you’re going to be vaccinated any faster, unless the number of vaccines we’re getting actually increases.
What happened to Quince Orchard?
The massive demand and extremely limited supply have led to some confusion, if not a potential line break, for access to the vaccine.
Several older adults, who had evidently made appointments in the state system, were fired from a county vaccination site at Quince Orchard High School on Thursday morning.
Officials said the people who were turned down were in the 75 and over category who are yet to be vaccinated in the county due to low supply.
Gayles said the health department is still investigating how he was able to make appointments, but it appears the email links were shared inappropriately.
The link to making appointments is through a state system designed to deliver the flu shot, said Earl Stoddard, director of the county’s office of emergency management and homeland security. Anyone with a link can book an appointment, and the system does not have a feature to automatically kill people.
For now, appointment links are still limited to health workers vaccinated under phase 1a.
“What’s going on is people – healthcare providers, most likely – believe they’re helping the community by sharing the bond,” Stoddard said, adding, “They actually make it a really bad thing. service to their community by sharing this link, slowing down in the system. “
The county strives to ensure that vaccinations are done in a fair and equitable manner, “not on the basis of what you know or can access in terms of getting a link,” Gayles said .
Officials stressed that pre-registered people aged 75 and over will receive a communication directly from the county with a link to sign up for a vaccination appointment when available.
“Some people were just doing what they thought was appropriate, because someone sent them a link,” Gales said. “But I’m going to say this very clearly to anyone else who uses the links unscrupulously or tries to register in advance: we will have zero tolerance for this behavior.”
Gayles said he was sympathetic to state health officials who are responsible for distributing the relatively low number of doses of the vaccine.
“They have to thread a lot of needles based on a limited supply from the federal government,” Gayles said.
But Stoddard said “the allocations are totally uneven,” given Montgomery County’s overall population and the number of healthcare workers who qualified for the vaccine as part of the very first phase of the vaccine rollout. .
Stoddard said the steps the state has taken to expand eligibility statewide, even though supply hasn’t increased, appears to be what the state said: “We’re just going to throw away 30% people against each other and have them compete for places, ”Adding,“ We just don’t think this is a fair and equitable way to distribute vaccines. “
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