Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Virginia Vaxx Program Gaining Momentum

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by

James A. Bacon
in

First doses administered

The Northam administration appears to have made a solid recovery from its disappointing performance in giving Virginians the COVID-19 vaccination. After falling to dead last a week ago among the 50 states in the Becker’s Hospital Review ranking of percentage of COVID-19 vaccines administered, the Old Dominion stands today at 21st. Some of this whipsaw change in rankings  likely is due to data reporting delays and catch-ups, but it seems safe to conclude that the situation in the real world is less dire than appeared to be a week ago.

The Virginia Department of Health has published a new view of the vaccine data that gives some insight into what is going on. Hospitals have been the primary channel for administering the vaccine, and they likely will continue to be so for a while because they also have the largest unused inventory.

Local health departments have been the No. 2 channel, and their importance will grow now that the Northam administration has designated them to be the primary conduit. Health departments have gotten the lion’s share of vaccine deliveries in the past seven days (shown by the gray shading in the lines). Medical practices, community health providers and pharmacies are second-tier players and will continue to be because they are getting very few doses.

Second doses administered

The switch from hospitals to health departments as the leading distribution channel has caused some confusion as hospitals received smaller vaccine deliveries than expected and had to cancel thousands of appointments. Health departments will rely heavily upon a new state registration process to sign people up. That website has not yet been created, and the Governor could not say last week when it will be.

Another potential snag: 342,000 first-dose vaccines have been delivered to hospitals, but only 250,000 second-dose vaccines. Will hospitals have enough to give second shots to patients who received their first shots?

A lot rides now on the performance of the local health departments. Some appear well prepared to meet the challenge. Others… maybe not so much. We’ll see.

— JAB

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12 responses to “Virginia Vaxx Program Gaining Momentum”

  1. ksmith8953 Avatar
    ksmith8953

    The website for pre registration has been created. If registered, you will receive notice when the site is operational. I listened to the press meeting yesterday. It appears that VDH was really embarrassed.

  2. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    In Fredericksburg – reportedly because of a change in state policy – VDH is taking over the appointment scheduling and the hospital actually responsible for getting the vaccine and staffing the shots.

    That’s a step away from the hospital setting up it’s own appointments and doing the shots for the general public and doing that well within the limits of how much vaccine they had. VDH had been doing the healthcare workers and such.

    But there simply is not yet enough vaccine to go around and so the appointments “open” first-come/first-served and word gets around and the website slammed then they run out of appointments and close the URL and the ones that missed out are angry and frustrated with VDH getting blamed essentially for doing it first-come/first-served. The less internet-savvy are largely missing out.

  3. Nancy_Naive Avatar
    Nancy_Naive

    The Pro-Life guys got it right when it came to the use of “anti”, as in “anti-abortion” having negative connotation.

    Use of negative terminology makes reasonable discourse difficult, so from now on I’m am not going to call them “anti-vaxxers”.

    Instead I shall endeavor to positive discourse by calling them “pro-death by means of preventable diseasers”.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      pro-“freedom and my right”… has a good ring to it, eh?

      1. Nancy_Naive Avatar
        Nancy_Naive

        Not suicidal enough.

  4. ksmith8953 Avatar
    ksmith8953

    The website for pre registration has been created. If registered, you will receive notice when the site is operational. I listened to the press meeting yesterday. It appears that VDH was really embarrassed.

  5. LarrytheG Avatar
    LarrytheG

    In Fredericksburg – reportedly because of a change in state policy – VDH is taking over the appointment scheduling and the hospital actually responsible for getting the vaccine and staffing the shots.

    That’s a step away from the hospital setting up it’s own appointments and doing the shots for the general public and doing that well within the limits of how much vaccine they had. VDH had been doing the healthcare workers and such.

    But there simply is not yet enough vaccine to go around and so the appointments “open” first-come/first-served and word gets around and the website slammed then they run out of appointments and close the URL and the ones that missed out are angry and frustrated with VDH getting blamed essentially for doing it first-come/first-served. The less internet-savvy are largely missing out.

  6. Nancy_Naive Avatar
    Nancy_Naive

    The Pro-Life guys got it right when it came to the use of “anti”, as in “anti-abortion” having negative connotation.

    Use of negative terminology makes reasonable discourse difficult, so from now on I’m am not going to call them “anti-vaxxers”.

    Instead I shall endeavor to positive discourse by calling them “pro-death by means of preventable diseasers”.

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      pro-“freedom and my right”… has a good ring to it, eh?

      1. Nancy_Naive Avatar
        Nancy_Naive

        Not suicidal enough.

  7. Bill O'Keefe Avatar
    Bill O’Keefe

    The Dr. Gov must also be a magician because this chart says that both medical practices and other community providers have administered more vaccines than they received. Curious and makes me question the accuracy of the data and competence of whoever prepared the first chart.

  8. Bill O'Keefe Avatar
    Bill O’Keefe

    The Dr. Gov must also be a magician because this chart says that both medical practices and other community providers have administered more vaccines than they received. Curious and makes me question the accuracy of the data and competence of whoever prepared the first chart.

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