| Delaware News Journal
Delaware Seniors Flock to Mass Vaccination Event
Hundreds in phase 1B line up to receive the COVID vaccine in the Delaware City DMV Friday
John J. Jankowski Jr., special for The News Journal
Editor’s note: The number of elderly people who had consultations on Saturdays but were not vaccinated has been corrected. The Public Health Division initially provided incorrect statistics.
At almost every stage in its early stages, the Delaware vaccine plan has generated confusion and frustration among healthcare professionals, first responders and older adults who, according to authorities, deserve protection from the deadly effects of the new coronavirus first.
In the first month of implantation, the state struggled to bring the vaccine to primary care providers and other private offices not affiliated with a hospital that are considered part of the state’s highest priority phase 1A population.
Often, they were forced to hunt down doses through their own connections, while the state’s vaccine tracker showed that almost half of the doses were not being used.
The state then established major drive-thru vaccination events focused on “running” for the rest of phase 1A, but residents who were not part of that group started receiving vaccines at the events, leading to further dismay.
Delaware moved last week to phase 1B of its vaccine plan, making the set of eligible recipients about three times as large, including some essential workers and all residents 65 and older. The plan is to vaccinate most seniors at major drive-thru events.
On the first official weekend for drive-thru events, hundreds of older adults abandoned the hour-long vaccination lines at the DMV facilities in Delaware City and Georgetown. Those who arrived early or on time for the scheduled 30-minute windows waited several hours before being vaccinated.
According to the state’s vaccine tracker, about 70% of the 96,325 doses of Delaware have been administered. Several thousand doses administered this weekend have not been added, meaning that the rate of vaccines administered in Delaware is likely to be higher and is among the nation’s top states.
But the recent effort to vaccinate as many people as possible at major vaccination events has endangered second doses for vaccinees in recent weeks, with vaccine supply still limited across the country.
The Delaware Medical Society said the Public Health Division told its organization that the state cannot guarantee the availability of second doses and schedule specific locations for the Delawareans to receive them.
According to an email obtained by Delaware Online / The News Journal, the Office of Emergency Medical Services, which helped orchestrate vaccine events for first responders, paused all previously scheduled second dose dates until further notice. .
Those who were vaccinated at the state’s DMV events this weekend received an email to schedule a second dose online that directed them to a page with no options for future vaccine events.
In an e-mail to The News Journal, Public Health Division spokeswoman Jennifer Brestel said, “Second doses are being provided as the government provides a vaccine for Delaware.”
Well before worrying about second doses, several older adults told The News Journal that they had a hard time navigating the online booking system needed to be vaccinated at mass vaccination events.
More than 10 months after the pandemic hit the First State, Delaware’s vaccination plan currently depends on older adults being able to browse a series of emails to make an appointment and produce a QR code to present to the site volunteers. vaccine to prove that they completed a mandatory medical history form from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
Dorothy Cutting, an 86-year-old lady who lives alone in Wilmington, first had trouble completing the “Captcha” to prove she is not a robot, and is now waiting for an email she said she has not yet received to continue to next step in the process.
She describes herself as “not computer savvy”, saying she uses the computer primarily for online puzzles and e-mail. Even if she received an appointment, driving to the Delaware City DMV facility would be a deterrent, she said.
For her safety and the safety of others, she does not drive outside the city because of her slow reaction time.
“For me, going to Delaware City is like telling me to drive to Alaska,” she said.
“The logistics are scary; are so difficult, ”she said. “If you can’t get a thousand people to receive your photos, don’t schedule a thousand people.”
What caused Saturday’s backups?
The Public Health Division said that the inability of many to complete the CDC form prior to their consultations contributed to the delays on Saturday. The agency also said that the event was delayed by people who attended without an appointment, more people from phase 1A attending than expected and equipment problems due to the cold.
The situation appeared to improve on Sunday afternoon, when the Public Health Division reported waiting times of one hour in Delaware and 15 to 20 minutes in Georgetown.
The agency sent messages to those who signed up for Sunday’s event asking them to complete the CDC questionnaire in advance, a step that was not included in the state’s initial messages when it announced the start of phase 1B last week.
To speed up Sunday’s event, the Public Health Division added state law enforcement officers to both locations to help with traffic flow and transferred phase 1A health workers in the city of Delaware to a separate group.
Spokeswoman Andrea Wojcik said the Delaware City and Georgetown facilities did not have as much space as the Dover DMV facilities, where the Public Health Division tested its system for phase 1B last weekend. The agency managed to solve some traffic problems overnight.
As the extreme cold forced the Georgetown event to switch to a paper system because the computers were not working properly, some people who were vaccinated received an email saying their appointment was canceled. The Department of Health and Human Services said these emails should be disregarded.
Several people who were vaccinated at Saturday’s event said they were satisfied with the way the event was conducted, despite longer than expected wait times and had no difficulty navigating the online registration system to make their first appointment.
“It was excellent,” said Rolando Toccafondi, a 77-year-old from Newark who was vaccinated with his wife after a six-hour wait on Saturday. “We were shocked. Everyone was so nice. Very, very favorable. “
However, 334 Delawareans who booked on Saturdays could not stand the wait and left the queue before being vaccinated or did not show up.
“It was a nightmare,” said Bonnie Siley, an 80-year-old woman who left the line on Saturday in Delaware City.
Tina Alinskas spent about three hours in line with her 89-year-old mother, Theresa Somkajlo, in Georgetown on Saturday morning. She said it would not be possible for her mother to enroll alone or drive through vaccination routes.
“There is no chance; there are too many steps,” said Alinskas. “The steps are confusing.”
And the second doses?
Alinskas received a message on Saturday night, saying that she could go online to register her mother for a second dose, which according to the vaccination card they received, should take place on February 19 or later.
The only date that appeared online was February 20, and she was unable to select it.
“Maybe they just aren’t ready to start making appointments yet, but I don’t know why then they would say to go to the location,” she said.
Others said they were told by volunteers at DMV events that there are no plans for second doses in the next month.
Recipients of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine must receive a second dose 21 days after the first, and recipients of the Modern vaccine must receive a second dose 28 days after the first.
The CDC said last week that second doses can be scheduled up to six weeks after the first, if they cannot be administered within the recommended time frame.
During a Tuesday night at the virtual city hall, Governor John Carney said the state needs to figure out how to ensure that all second doses are available on time, both in terms of supplies and administration.
“We are, I think, holding a small amount of second doses like perhaps some of our providers, but there is a higher priority in moving and getting more and more people with the first dose,” said Carney. “As we move forward, that offer has to increase.”
In the final days of the Trump administration, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar encouraged states to offer the vaccine to older adults and to stop holding second doses, saying the government would release all of its reserve doses. .
Subsequently, the authorities clarified that all of these reserve doses were already reserved as booster doses for people who received the vaccine, and their release would support people who needed the second dose, not new groups of people who were receiving the first dose.
Azar said that in the future the federal government will include doses for new people, as well as second doses for each weekly shipment. President Joe Biden echoed that policy when he announced his vaccine plan last week, according to the New York Times.
State officials said obtaining second doses for Delawareans depends on the amount of vaccine the federal government distributes to the state, which they said, under Trump, was irregular week by week and often fell short of estimates. Last week, the state received 18,725 doses, according to its vaccine tracker.
Carney said on Tuesday that the state needed to speed up the process to demonstrate that it can vaccinate more people than what is being delivered to get more doses.
“I didn’t want to risk losing any allocations in the future because we were unsuccessful with our short-term thru-put,” said Carney on Tuesday.
There are approximately 70,000 Delawareans that fall in phase 1A and more than 200,000 that fall in phase 1B.
Contact Brandon Holveck at [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @holveck_brandon.