COLOMBIA – All Southern Carolinians aged 16 and over become eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine on March 31, eliminating the need to fall into a qualifying category almost five weeks ahead of schedule.
The announcement that opens access to all adults comes at a time when the offer is keeping up with the demand for the life-saving shot, said Nick Davidson, deputy director of the state’s Department of Health and Environmental Control.
Consultations are available for more than 400 vaccine providers across the state, and a sharp increase in doses allocated by the federal government is likely to open more vacancies than ever, he said.
South Carolina providers will collectively receive about 236,000 doses next week, combining the first doses of the two-dose Pfizer and Moderna brands and the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine. This is almost double the doses sent across the state a month ago, according to DHEC.
“Making everyone eligible will help fill those vacancies,” said Davidson, while acknowledging that the ad is likely to bring a wave of people looking for a chance that could temporarily make them hard to find.
The move follows several other states doing the same, including neighboring Georgia, where anyone aged 16 and over can set up a meeting starting March 25.
Younger children still cannot get the injection because the vaccines were not tested on them in tests that led to federal authorization. Of the three vaccines authorized so far, only the two-dose Pfizer brand can be given to 16- and 17-year-olds. The results of studies involving children as young as 12 years old may come out this summer.
The vaccine’s launch in South Carolina began in mid-December with a focus on health professionals, long-term residents and medical first aid. Age started to be a factor in January, when seniors aged 70 and over were added to the eligibility list.
Health officials have repeatedly said that eligibility rules were designed to prioritize those most at risk of becoming seriously ill or dying, while weekly shipments to service providers are nowhere near remotely meeting demand.
Of the nearly 9,100 inhabitants of South Carolina who died with COVID-19 last year, 94% were 55 or older; 65 percent of them had underlying health problems, with heart disease and diabetes being the most common, according to DHEC.
The state officially moved to Phase 1B on March 8, when about 2.7 million South Carolina residents became eligible. The widespread expansion involved not only anyone aged 55 or over, but also anyone aged 16 or older with certain health conditions and disabilities, and any worker who cannot socially distance himself from work.
In any case, this opened up access for the vast majority of adults.
To keep things simple, DHEC told vaccine providers to no longer require any eligibility checks, leaving the person who signed up for an appointment to be honest about the qualification. This basically allowed any adult who wanted a chance to sign up.
Since March 8, the hundreds of vaccine suppliers in the state – hospitals, pharmacies, emergency care centers and public clinics – have given an average of more than 23,300 vaccines per day.
The most recent announcement overcomes DHEC’s plan to transition to Phase 1C in mid-April, with the intention of adding anyone aged 45 to 54 who does not yet fit into other eligibility categories and then officially opening for everyone else around May 3rd.
More than 1.2 million people in South Carolina have started the vaccination process and about 55% of them have received all the vaccines necessary for complete immunization, representing about 15% of the population, according to DHEC data.
It is still a long way from reaching the goal of collective immunity, which is when enough people are immunized to prevent the virus from easily finding new victims when an infected person coughs, sneezes or speaks.
Returning fully to pre-pandemic normality, without masks and social detachment, will lead at least 70 percent of the population to be immunized, said Davidson.
How quickly this will happen will depend on people’s willingness to roll up their sleeves, and studies show that a good portion of the population hesitates or refuses to do so.
“If someone is on the fence about shooting and thinking about not doing it, it’s like a policeman wearing only a bulletproof vest in the middle of the chest,” said Davidson of being sick of the COVID-19 at random . “You may be lucky, but maybe not. It’s a deadly decision.”
Dr. Michael Kacka, a medical consultant at DHEC, took another approach, appealing to people’s desire to put the pandemic in the rear view mirror.
“I’m ready for things to get back to normal and, really, our only way for things to get back to normal is through people who choose to get vaccinated,” he said. “It not only provides protection against COVID-19, but it will also take us back to a more normal life that I think we are all ready for now.”
follow Seanna Adcox on Twitter at @seannaadcox_pc.