North Carolina among 7 states with lowest COVID-19 vaccination rate, CDC says

North Carolina is among the seven states with the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rate in the country, the CDC reported on Monday, with less than 1% of the population vaccinated so far.

The CDC’s Immunization Dashboard shows that North Carolina administered the first dose of vaccination to 966 per 100,000 people.

“It’s probably going a little slower than we thought,” said Dr Dennis Taylor, who treats patients at Wake Forest Baptist Health in Winston-Salem. He is also president of the North Carolina Nurses Association. “And I don’t know exactly where the problems are, whether it’s just keeping the records or what. From what I understand, we have the vaccine. It’s just a matter of setting up the sites for it. people to get vaccinated. “

Q&A with a doctor in North Carolina: When can the general public get vaccinated?

Due to the limited supply, vaccinations in North Carolina are being phased in, and health officials say it will likely be well into the spring when the general public can get their shots. Currently, North Carolina is in Phase 1a, which includes healthcare workers, medical staff and first responders who work with COVID-19 patients, as well as long-term care staff and residents.

A spokesperson for the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services said Monday that some vaccine vendors will start phase 1b on January 6, but most will start on January 11.

NCDHHS has a dashboard updated once a week that includes vaccines administered by the state. So far, the dashboard shows that 63,571 people have received the first dose. However, the NCDHHS said that the data in its dashboard does not include vaccines given in long-term care facilities and that they know there are more vaccines being given than what currently appears in the list. weekly report.

A spokesperson for NCDHHS also said on Monday that in order to speed up the pace of immunizations, NCDHHS sent a letter to all local hospitals and health departments alerting them that future vaccine allocations will be changed based on the number vaccines administered to which they have reported. the state.

When can you get the COVID-19 vaccine? Find out where you are online

“Doing it in the right place at the right time is almost impossible to do perfectly, so the fact that we do it within a few months of the onset of the coronavirus versus 5 to 10 years, we are already ahead of schedule,” said Dr Arthur Apolinario, who treats patients at the Clinton Medical Clinic. He is also the co-chair of the North Carolina Institute of Medicine’s COVID-19 vaccine advisory committee, which has provided feedback to the state on how to distribute the vaccine. “We know there are going to be the hiccups. We know some people think they should get it faster or sooner.”

ABC11 has contacted Triangle hospitals to find out how many doses of the COVID-19 vaccine they have given. Duke Health has administered more than 10,000 doses. They started the second doses on Sunday with the first dose administrations. To date, UNC Health has vaccinated more than 13,000 employees. Second doses for the first recipients are expected to begin on Tuesday.

Almost 4,000 WakeMed employees have received their first dose of vaccination and an additional 1,200 employees are expected to be vaccinated (first dose) between Monday and Friday. They started giving the second dose this week.

Dr Apolinario explained what will happen when the vaccine is offered to everyone in North Carolina.

“We are going to have a wider distribution,” said Dr Apolinario. “It won’t be just the health department and hospitals that provide the vaccine at this point. Vaccines in development, they can all be provided in doctor’s offices where we don’t need special refrigerators to keep them colder. than current vaccines, therefore distribution will be more widespread. We are considering talking to churches, of course we are looking at primary care offices. “

Dr Apolinario and Dr Taylor both work with patients with COVID-19 and have received their first dose of the vaccine. Dr Taylor said he would receive the second dose on Friday.

“The first dose didn’t bother me at all,” said Dr Taylor. “I didn’t have any pain around the site. I didn’t have a fever, I really didn’t have any symptoms after I received the first dose. From what I understand, people who receive the second dose have a bit more local reaction to it, so a bit more muscle pain around the injection site, but that’s really about it. “

Former FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan told ABC11 via email that North Carolina is approaching vaccine distribution through a public health approach and that the gap the state is facing n was not that unusual at this point in the deployment.

In Wake County, they received 3,085 Pfizer vaccines in total and 1,065 were given on Monday morning.

Former state health director Dr Leah Devlin was on the COVID-19 vaccine advisory committee
attributed a lot of the problems to the lack of vaccines and said it was important for people to listen to the news and note when it’s their turn.

“We have an effective vaccine which is amazing. We have a plan to put that vaccine in place. The vaccine comes into our state every week. There will eventually be a vaccine for every person in North Carolina who is willing to take it.” , said Dr Devlin.

“The light is at the end of the tunnel. I think you heard Dr Fauci say it, but we’re still in the tunnel, so be patient, protect yourself, your family, your friends, and listen when it’s time to do it. go get that photo, ”Dr Devlin said. “Here we are, we are going to be vaccinating most of the population by the summer, so this is very good news,” Dr Devlin said.