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Vaccination Delays - Understandable


MickinMD

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In Maryland, those of us age 65-74 (Phase 1c) will be eligible for a COVID vaccination on Jan. 25th, but it's not quite "eligible to receive it" - it's eligible to register, beginning on that day, that you want to get it.

One of the few places near me that is on the State list for vaccinations happens to be a hospital where I took diabetes classes from nutritionists that Medicare paid for and thus I am on their official Patient Portal and have a patient webpage there.

Assuming the Jan. 25th date remains good, on that date I can REGISTER on the portal and then will be notified when I can make an appointment - no walk-ins allowed. I assume that because they know my info already, I won't have to bring anything more than my Real ID driver's license for proof of age. God knows what people who aren't on the hospital's portal have to do to register.

So I'm guessing I'll get my first shot by some time in February. With all the headaches coordinating with the federal government, I guess that's reasonable.

There are no drugstores like CVS on the list and their workers don't seem to have a clue if and when.

Here's the hospital's blurb for the 75+ folks who are eligible today, Jan. 18th:

How Will I Know When I Can Get the COVID Vaccine?

On Monday, January 18, individuals who qualify within Phase 1b will be able to register on this webpage to let us know they are interested in receiving the COVID-19 vaccine at UMMS.

Completing this registration will allow us to contact eligible individuals to schedule a vaccination appointment. Please check back here Monday, January 18 for more details.

Note: In order to distribute vaccinations as safely and equitably as possible, we cannot accept walk-ins.

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1 hour ago, MickinMD said:

Vaccination Delays - Understandable

"Understandable"? Sure - incompetence at the Federal level and a complete nonchalance about getting it right is what we have seen and, really, what we came to expect from that crowd.

"Acceptable"?  No way.  I'm hoping things really start to change in the next couple days as some adults come into the room, roll up their sleeves, and actually put the full weight of the US government behind the effort and not leave it up to the smaller and less capable state and local governments.

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1 hour ago, Razors Edge said:

"Understandable"? Sure - incompetence at the Federal level and a complete nonchalance about getting it right is what we have seen and, really, what we came to expect from that crowd.

"Acceptable"?  No way.  I'm hoping things really start to change in the next couple days as some adults come into the room, roll up their sleeves, and actually put the full weight of the US government behind the effort and not leave it up to the smaller and less capable state and local governments.

Agreed, though I mean understandable at the State and local level where they've been working hard but getting shafted over-and-over by the White House in everything including denying the promised use of unused testing facilities at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, MD because our governor got tired of waiting for promised Federally-supplied tests and bought them from S. Korea (his wife is Korean-American and arranged it).

The Federal Government has months to organize and rehearse getting the vaccines to people when they arrived and did nothing. To me, that's a form of murder.

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I think it's important to remember it's remarkable we even have a vaccine to distribute, given the normal timelines for vaccine development.  Many people worked long and hard just to get to that point.  I know one engineer in particular who made personal contributions to streamlining the vaccine manufacturing process that helped bring it more quickly to market.

Regarding the distribution, there's enough blame to go around, not just on the federal level but at state and local levels too, simply because each of those organizations have a piece in setting up the process.  Governments (pick your level) have known a vaccine has been coming for months, giving plenty of time to set up systems and test them.  There's no excuse for systems to crash or for people to wait hours to register.  Apologies, but I don't consider it understandable at all.

Example: Here in NY vaccine doses were thrown away because the strict rules for dispensing the vaccine gave hospitals the choice of throwing the doses out or getting fined for giving the doses to people who weren't yet eligible. 

And I'm going to take the extra step of calling out phrases like 'as some adults come into the room' and 'getting shafted by the White House'.  Again, apologies if that's getting personal by mentioning direct comments, but those are the sort of statements that can be easily interpreted as sidelong political comments; the type that drove me away from this place before.  I returned because it appeared SW had a good handle on it and it seemed people posting had gained additional respect for their fellows to leave such matters out of this Forum.

Take me to task on this if you wish.  To me its a matter of consideration for others that we understand we all have different political views, and that we put them aside here so we may enjoy each other's company.  Believe me, if SW were to permit it I could drench this Forum with political innuendo.  But then I would be disrespectful of everyone else on this Forum and it would be total waste of my time because it would change no one's mind anyway.

I readily understand passions run high on some matters; they do for many people on many topics.  I have no authority here as SW and the moderators do, so all I can do is but ask, kindly and respectfully, that we be especially mindful to keep politics and political references out of our discussions to keep this place pleasant and amiable.

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I liked your post TK but it's also important to understand that subjects like the vaccine which are important to all of us for non political reasons are drenched in politics, as you stated, at every level.

Government which is running the vaccine system is politics almost by definition.  It is not political to say that government, federal, state, local are all part and parcel of the problem so long as one doesn't finger point at some political party or person.   While SW Forum is doing pretty well on the no politics stance, there are some subjects that are very difficult to speak about as one has to be so careful to skirt around the edges.

We try, we really do.

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1 hour ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

I think it's important to remember it's remarkable we even have a vaccine to distribute, given the normal timelines for vaccine development.  Many people worked long and hard just to get to that point.  I know one engineer in particular who made personal contributions to streamlining the vaccine manufacturing process that helped bring it more quickly to market.

Regarding the distribution, there's enough blame to go around, not just on the federal level but at state and local levels too, simply because each of those organizations have a piece in setting up the process.  Governments (pick your level) have known a vaccine has been coming for months, giving plenty of time to set up systems and test them.  There's no excuse for systems to crash or for people to wait hours to register.  Apologies, but I don't consider it understandable at all.

Example: Here in NY vaccine doses were thrown away because the strict rules for dispensing the vaccine gave hospitals the choice of throwing the doses out or getting fined for giving the doses to people who weren't yet eligible. 

And I'm going to take the extra step of calling out phrases like 'as some adults come into the room' and 'getting shafted by the White House'.  Again, apologies if that's getting personal by mentioning direct comments, but those are the sort of statements that can be easily interpreted as sidelong political comments; the type that drove me away from this place before.  I returned because it appeared SW had a good handle on it and it seemed people posting had gained additional respect for their fellows to leave such matters out of this Forum.

Take me to task on this if you wish.  To me its a matter of consideration for others that we understand we all have different political views, and that we put them aside here so we may enjoy each other's company.  Believe me, if SW were to permit it I could drench this Forum with political innuendo.  But then I would be disrespectful of everyone else on this Forum and it would be total waste of my time because it would change no one's mind anyway.

I readily understand passions run high on some matters; they do for many people on many topics.  I have no authority here as SW and the moderators do, so all I can do is but ask, kindly and respectfully, that we be especially mindful to keep politics and political references out of our discussions to keep this place pleasant and amiable.

TK, you are a valued contributor here, try to give discussions like this a little slack.

If the federal or state governments seem to drop the ball on something, complaining about them dropping the ball is just a discussion, not political.  Saying they did it because they are commie autocrat left of center right libertarian pinkos is political.

This discussion can naturally get emotional, as many of us know people who have died or at risk of dying if we don't get a handle on it soon.

Yes, there's some politics here, it's not like we're going to all pretend major events aren't happening.  But people here have been pretty good about keeping it civil and to a minimum.

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2 hours ago, Thaddeus Kosciuszko said:

And I'm going to take the extra step of calling out phrases like 'as some adults come into the room' and 'getting shafted by the White House'. 

While I like to have the discussion stay civil and most of the time they have, they have a tendency to turn.  As a mod, I have traditionally turned a blind eye to some small stuff only to have it come back and bite us.  More than once I wish I would have just killed the thread after SW had to come in a clean it up.

So specifically to what TK is saying, the phrases he highlighted above are not directed at the government in general.  They are political statements at their core.

My 2 cents.

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26 minutes ago, Kzoo said:

So specifically to what TK is saying, the phrases he highlighted above are not directed at the government in general.  They are political statements at their core.

My 2 cents.

I'm fine with TK (or anybody) being specific in their comments.  My comment - adults in room - is VERY SPECIFICALLY apolitical.  It is a measured comment about the 12 months we've had to create a vaccination distribution system - from the top down - using the full weight and experience of the US government.  It has not been done well - demonstrably - and as such it will be refreshing to see if it takes a different direction with fresh eyes.  The old way hasn't worked. Let's hope the new approach, focus, and/or refinements do.

I shudder to think that the past 12 months of COVID could be political and not simply poor execution. BTW, we regularly use the "adults in the room" comment when someone on our team has to take over and/or fix a large problem that someone else was in charge of before us.  No politics - just a "step aside and let the adults handle this" sort of deal.

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Right now, I place the most of the blame at the Federal level.

They had a chance to purchase more vaccine last summer ahead of time -and declined. Other countries snapped that up.

They now promised to open up the reserves; only unlike they said, there are almost no reserves. This caused every state to open up to Level 1B sooner, when there likely isn't enough.

I'm a schedule 1B (essential to the economy, yadda yadda).  A few of our people got in, but scheduling was gone in a flash.

My boss knows someone who's part of the effort, so I'm on an on-call list for the "leftover doses in the vial" at the end of the night. If there are doses, I'm supposed to get a call around 9PM, and have a certain amount of time to get there and get the shot (I'm fairly close by).

I hope the next administration invokes the Defense Authorization Act for vaccine production.

(NOTE: This is not a rant about politics or the government; it's literally stating what happened and why)

 

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10 hours ago, maddmaxx said:

Florida's folks who got the first shot are overdue for the second......why.........they aint got any.

Cluster Fuck.

Pfizer due this week, Moderna due next week. My appointment for the second one is Wednesday the 27th...the second day they began giving Moderna. 

While our Governor is Master Cluster Fuck, Thankfully our mayor has common sense. Despite the self serving "ethical issue" declaring it unethical if had supply but didn't give our mayor quietly ignored and held back supply for #2...at least that is the story tonight. I will believe it on the 27th. Officially they are out of supply everywhere and no new people are receiving until new supply arrives. 

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