Vaccine deployment rollercoaster: how will the state solve future problems?

SALT LAKE CITY – Getting the COVID-19 vaccine has been a struggle for many Utahns and so far the rollout has not gone as smoothly as expected. What plans are underway to improve this? KSL investigators spoke to Governor Spencer Cox for answers.

“The truth is, we are working to fix it, but we’ll probably never fix it completely,” Cox said. “At least for a long time.”

You could say that the deployment of the vaccine in Utah got off to a very difficult start.

“Well, the first thing I found out was they wouldn’t answer a phone call,” said Gary Zabriskie, a Washington County resident. “And the next thing I found out was that they weren’t paying any attention to their website.”

Websites down, no appointments available, long lines and old people waiting in the cold. Although there has been a shortage of vaccines, there are plenty of problems.

“I was looking forward to everything going well because I thought Utah was doing things better than other states,” said Roberta Lovell, a Salt Lake City County resident.

Even Cox admitted that when he first took office, Utah was falling behind.

“I had been very frustrated with what I was seeing, and I sat down with the lieutenant governor and said, ‘We have to make big changes. Utah won’t be the 39th in the country for vaccine delivery, ‘”Cox said.

So what did he do about it? Cox said he threw money at the problem and gave local health departments everything they needed to help with staffing, technology and funding.

“I don’t care about the budget. I don’t care about the legislative session. I care about saving lives, keeping our hospitals open and fighting this terrible disease that we have seen,” Cox said.

His plan did not work perfectly. Local municipalities still had the hiccups and there were several days when the elderly stood in line for hours.

However, in a matter of weeks, Utah rose from 39th to fourth in the country for vaccine distribution, falling only behind New Mexico, North Dakota and West Virginia. This week, Montana also took the lead, pushing Utah into fifth place.

Former Utah Governor Mike Leavitt understands the frustrations on both sides.

“I was one of those trying to get to the website the moment it was available so I could get an appointment,” Leavitt said.

As US Secretary of Health and Human Services in the administration of George W. Bush, Leavitt prepared for national events such as an anthrax attack or an avian flu pandemic. But he said COVID-19 is a whole new beast.

“If we could start all over and redo the last two months, would we be better?” Absolutely. But we haven’t done it for 50 years. No one who attended did. And we “” are facing a different situation than we have ever experienced before, “Leavitt said.

In less than two weeks, Utah expects a major influx of vaccines: a jump from 83,000 doses per week to at least 197,000. That’s more than double the current rate, and the fear of escalation could result in a repeat of what we saw in January – or worse.

“Do you think the infrastructure in place will be able to handle all of these new vaccines?” KSL investigator Mike Headrick asked Cox.

“The infrastructure currently in place will not be able to handle all new vaccines, potentially three weeks from now,” the governor replied.

To relieve the pressure, Cox said the state was working on a plan that went beyond local health services. The vaccine is already being distributed at Smith and Walmart, but the governor said there are 12 partners in total, and one could be right in your neighborhood.

“We’re going to have very high-speed sites that are making thousands a day. Some of them will be parking lots where people can get into their cars. Some of them will be stadiums and some of them will be movie theaters. “Some of them will be test sites that will be converted to vaccination sites,” Cox said.

He also said local pharmacies and mobile clinics were part of the plan to reach people confined to the home.

All of these plans will require a lot of volunteers. To do this successfully, the state said it needs at least a thousand volunteers to help with trafficking, data entry, security and administration of vaccines. So far 4,500 have signed up.

“It’s going to go really fast, a lot faster than people expected,” Cox said.

So when is it your turn? The governor announced Thursday that Utahns aged 65 and over were now eligible. He said there were over 400,000 residents in that category, but we could get through them in no time.

“You can burn that population down in a matter of weeks, then you’re 60, then you’re 55 and again, at best, if the numbers hold up, we think all adults in the state of Utah may have the opportunity to receive a vaccine by the end of May, ”he said.

That’s ahead of the national schedule announced this week by the Biden administration, which pointed to the end of July.

During his monthly press conference Thursday morning, Cox said his experience so far with the White House Biden has been that they have a tendency to “under-promise and over-give.” This is not a bad thing ”.

Cox said the state would revise its schedule if necessary, but added, “From all the information we receive, we are very confident with this May schedule.”

It will be a huge undertaking and Cox admitted it will not be without more bumps and confusion. But while the system will probably never be perfect, he hopes people will be patient with the chaos.

“What I hope people know is that we are doing things for the right reasons even if we are wrong and our motives are pure,” he said.

Utahns 65 and older who want to register for a shot can visit the state’s COVID-19 website, coronavirus.utah.gov, for more information.

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