In 
Spencer Custodio |
Some of the most vulnerable residents are blocked to obtain coronavirus vaccines because the launch was plagued by bugs and omissions, drawing criticism from OC Supervisors.
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Since the vaccination registration program, called Othena, was launched a few weeks ago, many people have complained failures and interruptions, which prevents them from signing up.
Some people were getting their vaccination appointments by mistake through Otena, only to be rejected when they went to the vaccination sites.
“So I signed up as soon as OC Health said to. I had no expectations of anything and then on Thursday, I received the email that says congratulations, we have a dose for you. And I was really surprised, so I double-checked to make sure it was Othena, ”said Suzanne Haggerty, a 60-year-old resident of Rancho Santa Margarita.
As current distribution plans cater to people 65 and older, Haggerty said she was surprised to get confirmation of the vaccine through Othena and thought the service withdrew medical records, showing that she has breathing problems.
She was rejected on Disneyland supersite.
“I was there for 2.5 hours,” she said in a telephone interview on Monday. “So I get to the table and give them my ID and the guy says you have to go home. He said that you are not 65 years old. “
She said someone else was also rejected and a supersite official said they reject people in similar situations on a daily basis.
“The level of incompetence absolutely blew me away,” said Haggerty. “I tried to sign with Othena and won’t even let me in.”
Some OC supervisors publicly criticized Othena during Tuesday’s public meeting.
“There is one thing we can all agree on – Othena sucks,” said supervisor Don Wagner. “It’s a mess. It’s better. You know it’s a mess, the CEO (Frank Kim) knows it’s a mess, everyone on this board knows it’s a mess.”
The OC health officer, Dr. Clayton Chau, said that failures were expected.
“I mentioned before, that when building a system, there are always failures. And we hear people’s frustration. Even in a few days, it has improved significantly, ”said Chau.
The questions are also revolving around how the vaccine is being distributed in nursing homes, which should be done by pharmacies like Walgreens and Rite Aid, through a partnership with the state.
Jill Swartz, an Orange resident, said the virus killed her mother while she waited for the vaccine to reach the Silverado Newport Mesa nursing home.
Her mother first tested positive for the virus on January 13 and died on January 17, she said.
“The most vulnerable residents of these facilities are dying,” Swartz said in a telephone interview on Friday.
Swartz said the asylum was expecting the vaccine in December, but Walgreens has yet to deliver it.
She said the facility saw an outbreak.
Vaccinations at Silverado Newport Mesa are scheduled to start Friday, according to an email from nursing home administrators.
“If they had received it when they were due, the outbreak should not have been so severe,” said Swartz. “It’s too late for my mom.”
At a news conference earlier this month, Chau said he or the Health Agency did not know what pharmacies look like. vaccinate people in nursing homes, or how many vaccines have been administered.
It is also unclear how state health officials are monitoring vaccines made through partnerships with pharmacies.
Chau also said that the county distributes only about 20% of all vaccines sent to Orange County. The rest, he said, go to hospitals and other health professionals.
The question of vaccine in nursing homes was not raised at Tuesday’s supervisors’ meeting.
“How can they not have this information? I just find it absolutely unbelievable, ”said Swartz.
When county officials revealed Soka University’s vaccination supersite at a news conference on Saturday, Chau said the OC had about 66,000 vaccines on hand and about 600,000 people currently qualify for them.
“We have a limited supply,” said Chau. “Please get to know my team and I have been working tirelessly with our state partners to bring more vaccines.”
Swartz said county officials should have focused on vaccinating the most vulnerable elderly people before expanding the number of people who are eligible for vaccination, when OC public health officials reduced the age requirement to 65 or a few more weeks ago.
“They keep talking about this limited offer, so why are you already open to 65 or more? You have not vaccinated the most vulnerable population. And someone needs to be held responsible for that – the wrong decisions, the negligence, they need to be held responsible, ”she said.
Meanwhile, some residents face a language barrier when trying to register for the vaccine.
Othena does not offer language options, although translations into Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese and Korean are required under the $ 1.2 million contract with developer Othena Composite Apps, Inc.
“The lack of ethnic languages … the direct line – I received constituent comments. On the English line, the phone rang, rang and rang. And on the ethnic side, or they have people who don’t speak the language and it goes back to the English line, and then it is not followed. So the frustration is multifaceted, ”said supervising president Andrew Do.
Chau said that they are working on the language barrier.
But Do said that people expect all kinks and oversights to be resolved beforehand.
“For the average person, when you design a system, these are issues that you should have thought of immediately. There are 30 days to go. ”
Supervisor Doug Chaffee said the revised Othena app should be tested first.
“Are we going to test it before we put it on the market? I know this may have been part of the problem with Othena in the first place, ”said Chaffee. “I am concerned about some of our seniors who may be a little technology-illiterate.”
Chau said the county health agency is working with CalOptima to target vulnerable elderly people in an effort to vaccinate them through a mobile vaccination program.
“We still have problems with Othena, so we need to start working on it,” said Chaffee.
Last week, Governor Gavin Newsom quietly launched a statewide vaccine registration program in an effort to streamline fractured distribution.
“I think we will be able to port Othena’s data straight to the state system,” said supervisor Lisa Bartlett.
She said the app was designed to “literally take all the data fields and move them to a new system. Therefore, we must not miss anything in the translation. ”
Wagner visibly disagreed with Bartlett’s assessment.
“I must say that I share a little of the supervisor Wagner’s skepticism,” said Do.
Wagner replied: “Call me a skeptic. Keep an eye on them. Good luck.”
While county officials are trying to eliminate the wrinkles of OC’s mass vaccination efforts, virus hospitalizations have decreased.
On Tuesday, 1,677 people were hospitalized, including 437 in intensive care units.
But the deaths were constantly growing.
Since the beginning of January, the Public Health Agency has registered 895 people killed by the virus.
The recently reported deaths may extend to weeks due to delays in reporting.
The virus has killed 2,768 people, including 64 new deaths reported Tuesday, from a quarter of a million confirmed cases, according to the county Health Agency.
The virus has already killed five times more people than the flu on an annual average.
For contextual purposes, Orange County has averaged about 20,000 deaths per year since 2016, including 543 annual flu deaths, according to state health data.
According to state mortality statistics, cancer kills more than 4,600 people, heart disease kills more than 2,800, more than 1,400 die from Alzheimer’s disease and strokes kill more than 1,300 people.
Orange County has already surpassed its annual average of 20,000 deaths, with 21,110 dead by November, according to the latest available state data.
It is a difficult virus to be fought by the medical community because some people have no symptoms, but they can still spread it. Others experience mild symptoms, such as fatigue and moderate fever.
Others end up in the ICU for days and weeks before escaping, while others die from the virus.
Swartz said he tried to schedule an appointment through Othena for his mother.
“I tried that and it was a total disaster,” she said.
She said the fractured vaccine approach in OC and across the state is a disaster.
“I know that we are in the middle of a pandemic. I know things are going a little crazy, but getting a vaccine was no surprise, we knew it was coming, ”said Swartz. “His communication with the public has been precarious and unclear. On all fronts, I feel it was a disaster. ”
For more details on the COVID-19 vaccine in Orange County, see our Voice of OC information page: http://bit.ly/occovidvaccine.
Here is the latest information on virus numbers in Orange County from county data:
Infections | Hospitalizations and deaths | City to city data | Demography
Spencer Custodio is a reporter on the Voice of OC team. You can reach it at [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @SpencerCustodio