COLOMBIA – Seniors in South Carolina aged 65 to 69 may start enrolling on February 8 for a COVID-19 vaccine, Governor Henry McMaster announced, calling it a way to speed up vaccines for those most vulnerable To die of the disease.
The teachers, who asked for prioritization, will be in the next class, he said.
“We have a moral and ethical duty to first vaccinate Southern Carolinians who are most at risk of dying from the virus,” said the Republican governor on February 3, while acknowledging that supplies remain limited.
He expects the ad to make pharmacies and other providers receive injections more quickly, similar to how the deadline he issued last month to healthcare professionals resulted in hospitals scaling up their vaccines.
Of the approximately 7,400 Southern Carolinians who died of COVID-19, 82 percent of them are 65 or older, and their average age is 75, according to the Department of Health and Environmental Control.
“Right now, placing a younger person among an elderly citizen and what could be the chance of a lifetime would be unfair and irresponsible,” said McMaster. “Today’s action will save lives and allow our teachers to be vaccinated next.”
Expect frustration
But the estimated 309,000 newly eligible South Carolina could be just as frustrated in trying to get a chance as seniors aged 70 and over when they were added to the list on January 13. This is because there is still a shortage of supply.
On February 2, 45,300 more doses were booked by appointment than is available from providers across the state, DHEC said.
These shots will come from future shipments. After a recent spike in federal supplies, the state is receiving about 140,000 weekly doses. But half of them are destined for the second injection, needed several weeks after the first to provide the best chance of immunity.
DHEC said it would not make another large group eligible until supply began to recover and consultations no longer exceed availability.
But the pressure has increased to include elderly people aged 65 to 69, who are at a much greater risk of becoming seriously ill or dying of COVID-19 than many of those already eligible. Other states have already allowed them to have a chance. And many providers, including hospitals, have not followed DHEC guidelines in any way in vaccinating frontline healthcare professionals.
The list of eligible health professionals since mid-December is long, covering all types of jobs in the industry and estimated at more than 250,000 people. Still, even members of the DHEC vaccine advisory group have complained, for example, about medical office researchers and human resources employees having a chance ahead of vulnerable seniors.
“We have suppliers who don’t follow the guidelines,” DHEC acting director Marshall Taylor said on February 2 to senators complaining about who is overtaking the elderly, including members of the hospital board who meet virtually.
Officially, the state will remain in the first phase of eligibility, called Phase 1A.
But adding people aged 65 to 69 to the list will increase who is eligible for South Carolina’s 1.3 million people. So far, about 364,400 have had at least a first chance.
Until the February 3 announcement, people aged 65 to 69 were not scheduled to be eligible until Phase 1C, along with people aged 16 and over with underlying health problems. Anyone under the age of 65 and in poor health will still have to wait.
Teachers react
Teachers are eligible in the next phase, 1B, along with daycare centers, firefighters, grocery workers, postmen, bus drivers and farm workers. Police officers are also officially in that phase, although – as lawmakers noted to DHEC – entire departments have already been immunized.
Teacher advocacy groups, as well as state Superintendent Molly Spearman, asked McMaster to place teachers in a priority class as a way to encourage more districts to offer face-to-face learning and keep classrooms open.
The Palmetto State Teachers Association applauded McMaster’s initiative to add people aged 65 to 69, calling it “an important action to protect the most vulnerable citizens in our state”. But teachers also need special consideration “so that all schools offer the five-day classroom teaching model that the governor has championed since last summer,” the group said in a statement.
On February 3, four districts, all rural, remained entirely virtual, while 27 offered a full week in the classroom and 48 offered a weekly combination of face-to-face and online learning, according to the state Department of Education.
Making all K-12 public school employees eligible for the vaccine would add about 123,000 people. But only 60 percent of them are currently willing to take a chance, according to the agency’s recent survey of districts across the state.
The social media group SC for Ed criticized McMaster’s attitude, saying that he again “failed to prioritize public education” and that he created a “false narrative that several groups cannot be vaccinated at the same time, as is happening in other states.”
At least 25 states and the District of Columbia have made the vaccine available to teachers, according to an EdWeek count. The few in the south include Maryland and Virginia, where a lack of supplies has resulted in canceled appointments and some education officials are no longer linking vaccination to returning to the classroom, reports The Washington Post.
McMaster told the Rotary Club of Columbia on February 1 that helping his ability to incorporate the most vulnerable people into Phase 1A is that many first-rate health professionals and people who live or work in long-term care facilities are refusing to obtain a shot or making a wait and see approach.
Amid frustratingly low utilization rates, Master set a January 15 deadline for hospital staff, medical first responders and other healthcare professionals to make an appointment to have an injection or “go to the end of the line”. Although they were eligible for weeks, they did not set up mass meetings until the January 5 announcement.
By the time people aged 70 and over became eligible, on January 13, almost all doses available from providers, and many in future shipments, were booked by health professionals who rushed in to make appointments.
Many skilled workers who did not work directly for hospitals – including dentists, hospice workers and funeral directors – reported that they could not obtain one until the state clarified to hospitals, the only places where vaccines were available, that they should be vaccinating not – employees.
McMaster does not believe that the vaccine should be, nor will it make it, mandatory.
“This is a personal decision that every South American can make,” said spokesman Brian Symmes.
The state Hospital Association welcomed the McMaster ad.
“The South Carolina health workforce has had ample opportunities to receive these vaccines and will continue to have access,” said spokesman Schipp Ames. “The state’s hospitals and health systems are ready to receive more gun injections for the population of our state.”
Andy Shain and Jessica Holdman contributed reporting from Columbia.