Some people skip obstacles to get their second dose of Covid-19 vaccine

They are in the prioritized age group of 65 or older in the state of Florida, and Lynn said she was “ecstatic” because they were going to be vaccinated. However, getting to consultations was a challenge.

At the time, Publix was implementing vaccines in three Florida counties as a test, Lynn said, adding that her husband and she do not live near those counties.

“So it took a lot – a long drive and a hotel stay,” Lynn told CNN on Monday.

“The city where this was happening – Spring Hill, Florida – is more than three hours away. I think my appointment was at 9:30 in the morning, and I didn’t want to take any chances with a three-hour appointment – plus walk that day. So we decided, let’s go to sleep at night, “said Lynn. “We even auditioned that night to see where our hotel was in relation to the supermarket. That’s how we take care.”

Lynn said that on the morning of the appointment, she thought the vaccinations were “very organized”. She said she received the first dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine and was told she could visit any Publix location to get her second dose. The Modern vaccine is administered in two injections, 28 days apart.

“That was when everyone was very optimistic, thinking that only a ton of doses would come out of the pipeline,” said Lynn.

After 28 days, Lynn said she made a reservation at a Publix location near her home to receive her second dose.

“I was so happy,” said Lynn. “And then, about an hour later, we got a call from that Publix pharmacist saying that you can’t have that appointment. Why? Because we stopped you from going to Spring Hill, Florida. There is a dosage, with your name on it. And this is what you should get. ‘”

Lynn said that her husband and she drove again for three hours to make their appointments last Saturday. They stayed overnight at the same hotel.

“It was like déjà vu, taking the same walk, going up to the hotel. This time, we didn’t have to do a test because we knew where the supermarket was, ”said Lynn.

Lynn said that she and her husband successfully received second doses. She described the whole experience of getting the second dose as “upside down”, but it was worth the hassle.

“This is life or death – and I just want to give myself every advantage I can, and I just hope that other people feel that way too. And I hope that a story like this empowers people that you just can’t wait for,” she said.

Concern about misinformation

Morales, who lives in New York, said he felt strongly that his grandparents, who live in Florida, should get the Covid-19 vaccines.

Her mother’s father, 87, and her mother’s mother, 85, were diagnosed with Covid-19 over the summer, she said, and her family does not want to go through it again.

“His case was much more serious than my grandmother’s. It was a very scary time,” said Morales. “Fortunately, the two recovered.”

As soon as vaccines were made available in Florida, Morales said his mother, Dellonilda Padrón, who lives close to her grandparents, worked to schedule vaccines.

Dellonilda told CNN on Monday that her father has not yet received the vaccine, but she was able to make an appointment with her mother to receive her first dose at the Leon Medical Center-West Chester in Miami.

Her mother, Rosario Estela Padrón, received a dose of the Pfizer / BioNTech vaccine and was scheduled to return to the medical center in 21 days to receive her second dose.

“She was due to receive the second on February 3,” Dellonilda told CNN on Tuesday. But Dellonilda said that when she called the medical center to confirm the time for her mother’s second dose, she was told that no doses of vaccine were available.

“They don’t have the second one and I called almost every day,” said Dellonilda. “They told me they would call me when they received the second batch.”

Dellonilda said that when trying to schedule her parents’ vaccination appointments, she was informed of some misinformation about the vaccine – including the staff at the medical center telling her that her parents “probably don’t need it anyway” because they already had Covid- 19, she said.

Dellonilda’s daughter, Morales, told CNN on Tuesday that she is “very concerned” that this type of misinformation about the Covid-19 vaccine came from a health care provider.

Health officials currently recommend that people who have recovered from Covid-19 be immunized. CNN contacted Leon Medical Centers on Tuesday to confirm its policy and was told “we recommend that patients who have taken Covid-19 before still be vaccinated”.

Leon Medical Centers told CNN in an e-mailed statement that any patient in their health care system who received a first dose is automatically scheduled for a second dose and the second doses are currently in stock and on site.

“To be clear, no one who is scheduled for a second dose, and has been clinically discharged, has been denied a second dose for lack of a vaccine,” the statement said. The center confirmed with CNN that it will “clear up any confusion” about the second dose of Dellonilda’s mother, Rosario.

Dellonilda confirmed on Tuesday that Leon Medical Centers contacted her in response to the CNN report, and she plans to take her mother to receive the second dose of the vaccine on Wednesday.

The center added in its statement that the vaccination process has been “smooth” so far and “we are honored to play a small role in this effort”.

In response to the Leon Medical Centers statement, Dellonilda’s daughter Morales told CNN on Tuesday that she does not believe that the challenges with scheduling her grandparents’ vaccination appointments were due to “administrative error”.

Health officials take a closer look

Lori Tremmel Freeman, executive director of the National Association of Municipal and Municipal Health Officials (NACCHO), told CNN on Monday that she heard anecdotal reports from some vaccination sites canceling appointments for second doses, but it is unclear why. cancellations have been taking place since then the second doses are automatically reserved when the initial doses of the vaccine are sent.

“You get vaccine A at the same time that vaccine B stays in the reserve and then I don’t know what could be causing the second dose of vaccine to not be there, because the way the system is set up, shipment occurs automatically at prescribed interval after the first vaccine is given, “said Freeman.

“If vaccinators are in any way using the second dose consignment to do the first vaccinations for priority groups, then it can distort the whole process,” she said. “I don’t know why or when it would happen, but I am concerned about hearing these things.”

Freeman said he plans to examine these events more closely. NACCHO meets weekly with the White House and Freeman said he plans to share those concerns at this week’s meeting.

CNN contacted the state of Florida – where Morales and Lynn’s grandparents currently live – for comment. But in some states, appointments for the second dose may fall outside normal hours.

For example, Chad Wasdin, a spokesman for the Health Departments of Gwinnett County, Newton and Rockdale in Georgia, told CNN that some of his second-dose vaccination commitments are out of the ordinary three to four weeks for vaccines from Pfizer / BioNTech and Moderna, respectively. But all second doses are administered within the six-week maximum recommended by the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Now that we have larger locations, we are working to move as many second doses as possible closer to the recommended date,” Wasdin said. “We don’t cancel a second dose.”

Washington State Department of Health spokesman Shelby Anderson also confirmed to CNN that in Washington State, the department asked providers to “schedule the second dose while patients received the first dose”.

In California, Darrel Ng, a spokesman for the state’s Covid-19 Vaccine Task Force, told CNN in an email on Monday that there is an “extremely restricted offer” of vaccine availability.

With “relatively low” supplies, limited quantities of vaccine dedicated to large community clinics three weeks ago will now need to supply a second dose of vaccine, said Ng. “We are working with our federal partners to increase overall supply to the state,” he said.

White House to increase vaccine supply to states

The Biden government announced on Tuesday that it is increasing the number of weekly doses of vaccines for states, tribes and territories by 28%.

Jeff Zients, Covid-19 White House response coordinator, said at a Covid-19 White House press conference that when the Biden government took office, the weekly delivery of vaccines from the United States government to the states was 8 , 6 million doses. This is increasing to 11 million Zients, he said.

“I know that Americans are looking forward to being vaccinated,” said Zients. “We are working with manufacturers to increase the supply of vaccines as quickly as possible.”

Zients attributed the increase to support for manufacturing, including using the Defense Production Act to help obtain more equipment for Pfizer and a distribution system that allows for continuous inventory of the first and second doses for shipment to the states.

“The increase is 5% this week compared to last week, but it is 28% in the last three weeks,” said Zients. “I think it’s the manufacturers doing a good job and the president and the team doing everything we can to support this manufacturing process.”

Management announced Friday that it would use DPA to expand priority ratings for Pfizer, including filling pumps and other components needed to manufacture Covid-19 vaccines, which would eliminate an existing bottleneck in production.