AUSTIN – State Representative Michelle Beckley, D-Carrollton, has no special access to the coronavirus vaccine just because she is an elected official.
She is a member of group 1B, the second group eligible for the vaccine on the state’s priority list. She has a pre-existing condition that makes her more susceptible to coronavirus, with her designation of priority only after the first respondents, health professionals and nursing home residents.
Then, when the state announced on Tuesday that vaccine suppliers could start inoculating members of the second group, which also includes anyone aged 65 and over, Beckley called. For hours.
Four different providers were unable to give her the vaccine, but for different reasons – one was not open, another said that it only had enough doses for medical professionals, a third was out of supply and a quarter was coming and going with her in one complicated email chain.
It didn’t make sense. A day earlier, Governor Greg Abbott said state data showed that a “significant portion” of the Texas coronavirus vaccine was on the shelves. The commissioner of the State Department of Health Services urged all providers to immediately start vaccinating members of the second group, saying he did not want any unused doses.
But on the ground, providers across the state say the stock has run out – and many have yet to make it through the top priority group of frontline workers. And while Beckley managed to arrange a coveted meeting next week, others in group 1B were not so lucky and are not sure who to turn to or who to consult for a chance.
“There is all the confusion,” said Beckley. “There is nothing good about that.”
Availability
On Wednesday, state data indicate that 205,463 people received a coronavirus vaccine, while 678,925 doses were distributed to vaccine suppliers – pharmacies, hospitals and other entities – across Texas.
But this data does not fully capture the scene. The state’s reporting system suffered an intake error during the Christmas holiday, which excluded about 48,000 doses of official data. Another 27,000 vaccines have not yet been sent because some providers used the wrong number to rank when sending immunization data to the state, said DSHS spokeswoman Lara Anton. These problems should be corrected in the next few days.
Then, another 144,400 doses of the Moderna vaccine – one of the two currently approved by the federal government – were postponed during shipment, arriving a week later than planned. Providers did not start receiving these doses until Monday or Tuesday, but they have been reflected in state data previously.
And there is the usual reporting delay. Providers have 24 hours to send their vaccination data to the state, and then it takes another 24 hours for that data to be reflected on the public panel.
“It is possible” to say that a “significant portion” of the coronavirus vaccines was on the shelves may have been an exaggeration, said Anton. DSHS commissioner John Hellerstedt first issued a letter to suppliers urging them to use all the supplies available last week, when the extent of shipping delays and technical errors were not fully known, she said.
“Many things (were) contributing to the numbers appearing to be lower than anyone thought they should be,” said Anton.
Now, as the state moves to the second eligible group of Texans, the issue is supply. Anton said the state is unable to distribute extra doses of vaccines, as they await a weekly quota from the federal government and sometimes do not know the number of doses they will receive until the last minute.
Houston
In Houston, hospitals that are part of the Texas Medical Center said they are rapidly distributing the vaccines they received and keep none in reserve.
Baylor St. Luke’s Medical Center reported on Wednesday that it administered more than 95% of the 5,850 doses of the Pfizer vaccine in hand. The Houston Methodist distributed 19,000 of the 30,000 doses as of Wednesday, although the hospital received about 10,000 of those doses the day before, a spokeswoman said.
“We started vaccinating those over 75 this week, reaching out to our patients who have used our facilities in the past two years,” Methodist spokeswoman Stephanie Asin said in a statement. “Next, we will move to 65 or more.”
Bexar County
Bexar County has about 140,000 frontline health workers qualified to receive the vaccine now, but the county has received only about 50,000 doses. Another 40,000 doses are reportedly on the way, but it is still not enough to vaccinate everyone in Phase 1A, which will remain the priority, said Colleen Bridger, interim director for the San Antonio Metropolitan Sanitary District.
As of Tuesday, more than 31,000 people in the county had been vaccinated, and that number is increasing every day. On December 23, the county received a shipment of 1,100 vaccines and used them in three days, Bridger said.
County Judge Nelson Wolff, who was vaccinated on Wednesday, said the doses were “not on the shelf” at University Hospital, the district’s public hospital. Shelley Kofler, a spokesman for University Health, said they received 6,475 doses of the Pfizer vaccine and used more than 6,000 of them as of Wednesday.
Both University Health and CHRISTUS Health in San Antonio are preparing to start offering the vaccine to people in Phase 1B on a larger scale next week. A spokeswoman for Methodist Healthcare said more details about expanding vaccination for people in Phase 1B will be available in the coming days.
“In San Antonio, we didn’t go through that first phase and, in fact, we didn’t even get enough vaccine to do that,” said Bridger. “We are planning for large-scale vaccine launches when the supply is available and sent to us.”
Confusion abounds
HEB, one of Texas’ largest retailers offering the coronavirus vaccine, received about 28,000 doses of the vaccine on Christmas Eve. This allocation translated into about 100 doses per store, and “these don’t last long,” said Dya Campos, director of government affairs for HE-B.
The company has already exhausted this initial batch, Campos said. HEB is not currently offering the vaccine to members of the second priority group, as it is still working through eligible frontline workers and long-term care residents.
As soon as the pharmacy receives more doses, it will open an online scheduler where people can apply to receive the vaccine, she said.
“The problem with vaccination 1B now is the supply,” said Campos. “As soon as we receive more offers, we will be able to expand the group that we currently vaccinate. … There is not much time to rest in the process. This can be frustrating for the general public. It is a very complicated and fast process. “
Smaller local providers are facing similar problems. At 38th Street Pharmacy in Austin, co-owner Jeffrey Warnken said he received 200 doses of the vaccine on Monday – and he is almost running out of quota. The rest of the available photos are already scheduled to go into people’s arms on Monday.
“Do you want to send us more doses?” he said. “We are going to vaccinate these people, this is great. But I have none. All my doses were counted. “
And while members of the second prioritization group are struggling to find available doses, some members of Phase 1A say they are still being left out.
Margo Rocha, a San Antonio resident who works as a monitor at the University Hospital, said she received the first dose of the vaccine about two weeks ago – but her husband, who works directly with patients in a gastroenterology practice, was told that he did not qualify as a frontline employee to receive the vaccine.
“I am happy that he did it and I am not happy that he did not do it,” Rocha said on Tuesday. “He is willing to get it, but he doesn’t know who to ask, except (his) employer, but the employer does not. … If you can’t go to your employer, who are you going to? “
Tony Dasher, a professor at the Feik School of Pharmacy at the University of the Encarnate Word in San Antonio, said that many community pharmacies were probably taken by surprise when the state suddenly authorized people to be vaccinated in Phase 1B on Tuesday, making it more It is difficult for pharmacists to coordinate the administration of the vaccine and, at the same time, to manage their business.
“The state needs to strive and ensure that there is good communication and that people know that there will be an adequate supply of vaccines, and they need to bring that supply of vaccines to the community now, not later,” said Dasher.
“The pharmacy really prepared for this and they are ready, but unfortunately there are other limiting factors that will lead to dissatisfaction at the end of the day,” he added. “I think pharmacies will do their part if the state does theirs.”
Anton, the DSHS spokeswoman, reiterated that, as supplies are still limited, group 1B members should regularly check with their primary care physicians and other providers to check availability.
The governor’s office, meanwhile, praised the state’s effort to vaccinate Texans as quickly as possible, while doubling the claim that some providers may not be using the vaccines provided to them.
“With new shipments arriving each week at no charge, the state of Texas urges providers to rapidly vaccinate as many people in high-risk groups as possible, rather than these life-saving vaccines and drugs on the shelves,” the spokeswoman said. Abbott, Renae Eze. said in an email.