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Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Northam’s Vaccination Comeback

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by

James A. Bacon
in

by James A. Bacon

After an abysmal start in vaccinating its population, Virginia has risen to 10th best in the nation ranked by the percentage of COVID-19 vaccines that have been administered. According to the Beckers Hospital Review database, Virginia has given 68.7% of the vaccine doses supplied by the federal government.

I don’t know what kind of whip Northam applied to his health care bureaucrats since Virginia ranked 50th in the nation a couple of weeks ago, but something is working. The system for giving shots in the Old Dominion has relied primarily on hospitals and secondarily upon local health departments. Doctors’ offices, community health providers and pharmacies have been tertiary players in the effort.

The Northam strategy faces a new test, however, as the state prioritizes local health departments. In the past week, health departments have been supplied with 81,550 new “first” doses compared to only 16,650 for hospitals, according to the Virginia Department of Health vaccine dashboard. (The distribution of “second” doses has been more even.)

While some health departments have taken the lead in organizing local vaccination efforts, the rollout has varied in effectiveness. The success of Northam’s strategy will depend upon the ability of every local health department to pull its weight.

Data questions. As we track the effectiveness of the vaccination rollout, some basic questions arise about the Virginia Department of Health data. Here is the breakout of “first” does vaccines received and administered in Virginia.

How is it possible for medical practices to have administered 81,370 vaccines but to have received only 18,925? Where are primary care docs getting their doses?

How is it possible community health providers to have given 91,883 shots but to have received only 31,550? Where are clinics getting their doses?

Something is going on that is not captured in the statistics. Or, perhaps, the statistics are wrong. It’s worth a closer look.

Meanwhile, an update on cases… The number of confirmed cases in Virginia continues to spike, as seen in this VDH COVID dashboard chart:

Ignore the gray zone. There is a time lag in the reporting of the data, and those numbers will increase as they are updated. If it feels like things are worse out there, that’s because they are.

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29 responses to “Northam’s Vaccination Comeback”

  1. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead V

    I hand wrote a letter of thanks to Mr. Northam this morning. Just dropped in the mailbox. I hope our governor continues his awakening to better leadership.

    1. Steve Haner Avatar
      Steve Haner

      Still a freaking disaster out here in Henrico. You sign up, but did they get it? You hear nothing. My wife had a nice chat with someone in Chesterfield, but cannot reach Henrico. It is better but I’m reserving judgement. At 66 with my conditions I want Pfizer or Moderna but odds are I won’t get that choice.

  2. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    Geeze, if they get vaccinations under control and the schools re-opened, what will the Coonman critics have to do? What will Kirk Cox run on other than he’s not Northam and not an Amanda Chase Trumpster, which sounds a little risky for the GOP these days anyhow.

    1. Steve Haner Avatar
      Steve Haner

      F*&%$ up VEC, DMV, Parole Board, 35 tax increases….we’ll think of something.

  3. TooManyTaxes Avatar
    TooManyTaxes

    Fairfax County is not doing well. We registered quite some time ago and have heard nothing. The supervisors point the finger at the state. Virtually everyone in my wife’s family who are eligible have been vaccinated in Ohio & Indiana.

    1. Steve Haner Avatar
      Steve Haner

      The stories that VDH is muscling in to control the CVS distribution is very bad news. The equity drive rules all…have to keep the Vaccine Equity Police at the RTD satisfied….Speed and focus on age will be secondary.

      Jim is being a little quick to praise here. Since Sunday’s snow the daily vaccine stats have tanked, six days running.

  4. JALGT Avatar
    JALGT

    Perhaps this blog has provided this sort of information previously, but I will ask anyway. Is there data showing, by health district, how many doses have been administered for phases 1a and 1b, including on a per capita basis? Or, perhaps urban versus rural areas?
    Living west of the Blue Ridge, as I do, I share the frustration of some who have registered, or attempted to, but who have received no real information about when/if they can expect to be given a vaccine appointment. It’s not at all clear to me what sort of prioritization is being given to folks within a phase and a region. Is it first come first serve? Are the criteria for determining the order the same in each health district?
    The repeated statements about not enough vaccines just don’t seem enough justification for the non-specificity of published materials, including by my health district and in local news. It does appear that local press is trying to find out on all our behalf. But without a whole lot of success.

  5. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
    James Wyatt Whitehead V

    I hand wrote a letter of thanks to Mr. Northam this morning. Just dropped in the mailbox. I hope our governor continues his awakening to better leadership.

    1. Steve Haner Avatar
      Steve Haner

      Still a freaking disaster out here in Henrico. You sign up, but did they get it? You hear nothing. My wife had a nice chat with someone in Chesterfield, but cannot reach Henrico. It is better but I’m reserving judgement. At 66 with my conditions I want Pfizer or Moderna but odds are I won’t get that choice.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        The thing is , there are apparently some localities where it is going well so kinda hard to blame VDH or Northam if there are some good areas.

      2. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
        James Wyatt Whitehead V

        The old timers down at the Frost Diner talk about the Moderna vaccine. That is the one they prefer some reason.

        1. LarrytheG Avatar
          LarrytheG

          Is that a return to trusting science? 😉

          1. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
            James Wyatt Whitehead V

            Yeah I don’t Mr. Larry. For some reason the Moderna brand is very popular. Hope it works!

  6. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    Geeze, if they get vaccinations under control and the schools re-opened, what will the Coonman critics have to do? What will Kirk Cox run on other than he’s not Northam and not an Amanda Chase Trumpster, which sounds a little risky for the GOP these days anyhow.

    1. Steve Haner Avatar
      Steve Haner

      F*&%$ up VEC, DMV, Parole Board, 35 tax increases….we’ll think of something.

  7. TooManyTaxes Avatar
    TooManyTaxes

    Fairfax County is not doing well. We registered quite some time ago and have heard nothing. The supervisors point the finger at the state. Virtually everyone in my wife’s family who are eligible have been vaccinated in Ohio & Indiana.

    1. Steve Haner Avatar
      Steve Haner

      The stories that VDH is muscling in to control the CVS distribution is very bad news. The equity drive rules all…have to keep the Vaccine Equity Police at the RTD satisfied….Speed and focus on age will be secondary.

      Jim is being a little quick to praise here. Since Sunday’s snow the daily vaccine stats have tanked, six days running.

      1. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        In our area, VDH ended up taking over the scheduling and MWH continued to give shots.

        At one time, it was not clear if one should go to the MWH website and sign up or go call VDH or what and as a result is was pretty much wild-wild-west but apparently that has settled down now.

        I hear from folks who have absolutely no problem from the start and from folks who have had no luck at all.

        In general, in our area, it was much better following a link to the hospitals website which then took you to MyChart if you had a MyChart account and from then on, it was smooth sailing.

        I’d speculate that some of this may have something to do with the VDH health district itself in terms of it’s leadership and staffing.

        None of the institutions have had to deal with pandemic scale challenges.. and some met the challenge and some not.

        1. Steve Haner Avatar
          Steve Haner

          VDH has specific marching orders on who gets to the head of the line and who does not. I want to see shots by zip code…. Here you sign up and hear nothing. When my wife talked to Chesterfield, she was told the staff there could not get into the database to confirm a name was entered. Only VDH gets into the database…..cue the Twilight Zone music….

          If the CVS website goes active, we’ll try there, too, but were told (by Chesterfield) that VDH is trying to coopt that as well. Just like your hospital.

          1. James Wyatt Whitehead V Avatar
            James Wyatt Whitehead V

            Try Winchester Mr. Haner. My in laws in Herndon went out there to get the shot. No questions asked. It would make a good road trip. Wait till Monday since it is going to snow.

  8. JALGT Avatar
    JALGT

    Perhaps this blog has provided this sort of information previously, but I will ask anyway. Is there data showing, by health district, how many doses have been administered for phases 1a and 1b, including on a per capita basis? Or, perhaps urban versus rural areas?
    Living west of the Blue Ridge, as I do, I share the frustration of some who have registered, or attempted to, but who have received no real information about when/if they can expect to be given a vaccine appointment. It’s not at all clear to me what sort of prioritization is being given to folks within a phase and a region. Is it first come first serve? Are the criteria for determining the order the same in each health district?
    The repeated statements about not enough vaccines just don’t seem enough justification for the non-specificity of published materials, including by my health district and in local news. It does appear that local press is trying to find out on all our behalf. But without a whole lot of success.

  9. Bill O'Keefe Avatar
    Bill O’Keefe

    VDH has a new meaning—Virginia’s Deep Hole. On Friday, Representative Spanberger sent an email that said in part,
    “Governor Northam directed the Virginia Department of Health to expedite its work on a centralized statewide vaccine registration system to create more efficient processes for scheduling, confirming, and successfully receiving a vaccination appointment. This system is currently being developed and is expected to be complete soon.”
    What the hell has VDH been doing since last March? Anyone who has tried to use its website has found out that it is full of stuff but is not user friendly when it comes to registering for the vaccine. William Galston, a former Clinton White House official, published a Brooking Institute paper –Covid 19: Why Are Some States And Localities So Much More Successful. The answer seems to be the difference between an emphasis on performance over bureaucratic process. Virginia has made the process overly complex and not transparent.
    My wife and I have registered twice with Chesterfield–I’m 82 and she’s 67 with a pre-existing condition–and yet we have never been called and can’t find out if we are even in the system.
    Northam has handed the republicans a gift for November that will keep on giving.

  10. Bill O'Keefe Avatar
    Bill O’Keefe

    VDH has a new meaning—Virginia’s Deep Hole. On Friday, Representative Spanberger sent an email that said in part,
    “Governor Northam directed the Virginia Department of Health to expedite its work on a centralized statewide vaccine registration system to create more efficient processes for scheduling, confirming, and successfully receiving a vaccination appointment. This system is currently being developed and is expected to be complete soon.”
    What the hell has VDH been doing since last March? Anyone who has tried to use its website has found out that it is full of stuff but is not user friendly when it comes to registering for the vaccine. William Galston, a former Clinton White House official, published a Brooking Institute paper –Covid 19: Why Are Some States And Localities So Much More Successful. The answer seems to be the difference between an emphasis on performance over bureaucratic process. Virginia has made the process overly complex and not transparent.
    My wife and I have registered twice with Chesterfield–I’m 82 and she’s 67 with a pre-existing condition–and yet we have never been called and can’t find out if we are even in the system.
    Northam has handed the republicans a gift for November that will keep on giving.

    1. Steve Haner Avatar
      Steve Haner

      Why last night’s news reported they are just now starting to train the volunteers for the state hotline. Now. Two months after the vaccines arrived. Incompetent would be a compliment.

      1. idiocracy Avatar
        idiocracy

        “Better late than never”

        1. Bill O'Keefe Avatar
          Bill O’Keefe

          That may not be the case with a system run by the equivalent of the three stooges–Larry, Curly, and Moe.

      2. LarrytheG Avatar
        LarrytheG

        pay attention to the word “volunteers” and trained – from a staff that was already maxed with other aspects of the pandemic.

        It tooks YEARS for the DMV to develop a well-functioning website and you STILL have to wait in a room for an hour or more for some things.

        I think ya’ll are expecting Amazon/Google type performance from state agencies that are not willing or unable to pay the salaries that top notch IT people command.

        And this happens to both GOP and DEM Governors and GAs.

        Sure someone like Cox can “blame” Northam for the pandemic but truth be know, people want to look ahead and they want to hear Cox vision for the future – that’s how you really win votes. That’s a problem the GOP has added to their others. They just have to have their boogeymen past and present.

        1. Bill O'Keefe Avatar
          Bill O’Keefe

          Larry, that is the way that politics works. Check out Saul Alinsky’s Rules.

          1. LarrytheG Avatar
            LarrytheG

            Yep, for those that can’t escape that mindset, agree.

            But then you have the folks that say “we can help this with more money” and the other side: ” No way, we spend too much already”.

            Is that Saul Alinsky? hmmm 😉

            You wanna “fix” VDH in a hurry? Better be willing to pony up a bunch of dollars. Over time, with volunteers… some version of purgatory!

            It’s possible if Northam had essentially stood up a stand-alone effort for a vaccine website it might have succeeded but even then, it would have been AFTER the last GA and about 9 months to do – even a tall order for someone like Amazon.

            A state-wide web database that allowed folks to see where there were available appointments and sign up would have been awesome – no argument from me.

            Expecting a state agency to do that in 8 months – not so much.

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