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Virginia’s Covid Vaccination Plan – Nothing to Exercise

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by

sherlockj
in , ,

by James C. Sherlock

I have read a lot of speculation here on who is responsible for the mess that has been the distribution and administration of COVID vaccines.

I will try offer some clarification.

On a day-to-day basis, people get flu shots or shingles shots or whatever from a lot of different providers. The normal pharmaceutical distribution system handles the supply chain.

Emergency planning guidance for pandemic emergency distribution and administration of vaccines is contained in Virginia’s famously shy Emergency Operations Plan – HAZARD-SPECIFIC ANNEX #4 PANDEMIC INFLUENZA RESPONSE of 2012.

Planning assumptions included:

– Pre-event planning is critical to ensure a prompt and effective response to a pandemic influenza, as its spread will be rapid, recurring (in multiple waves), and difficult to stop once it begins. …
– Vaccines will not be available for approximately six months following identification of the virus and will be in limited quantities when made available, necessitating the need to develop and implement a distribution plan.

Policies:

“All agencies assigned responsibilities within this annex will develop and maintain the necessary plans, standard operating procedures, mutual aid agreements, and model contracts to successfully accomplish their tasks.”

That pandemic vaccine distribution plan was the responsibility of the Department of Health since 2012. It did not create one.

A vaccination plan would have at least taken a shot at:

  • the most efficient and effective approaches and priorities with which to orchestrate vaccine distribution and the vaccination 8 million Virginians; and
  • the communications and registration systems required to make it work.

Exercises would have smoothed out at least some of the rough spots. Exercises are not a fantasy.

Under the National Exercise Program FEMA funds state and local exercises and provides exercise tools.

There were four two-year National Exercise cycles between the development of Annex 4 and the arrival of COVID.

Each cycle offered a pandemic response component. Virginia chose not to participate in that portion of the program.

Now we know why.

The VDH career employees had not done the next level of planning that was required by Annex 4. There was nothing to exercise.

So spare us all the shoulda’s and woulda’s. Didn’t.

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31 responses to “Virginia’s Covid Vaccination Plan – Nothing to Exercise”

  1. Steve Haner Avatar
    Steve Haner

    It has been a fascinating train wreck to watch. So, how do Salem, Staunton and Waynesboro get to about 40% vaccinated (per the state’s data, 40,000 or more per 100,000) while Norfolk and Portsmouth just broke the 10,000 per 100,000 line, and Hopewell isn’t even there yet? Uneven state distribution, better local management or high numbers of refusals in some cities?

    1. Steve Haner Avatar
      Steve Haner

      Update 22 hours later… well, those numbers have disappeared from the VDH website today! Salem, Staunton and Waynesboro for example no longer indicate such deep vaccination penetration after all….question resolved. ?!?

      1. sherlockj Avatar
        sherlockj

        Rule #1 on VDH website:

        If you see something interesting, download or screen capture it. Information there is very transitory.

  2. Steve Haner Avatar
    Steve Haner

    It has been a fascinating train wreck to watch. So, how do Salem, Staunton and Waynesboro get to about 40% vaccinated (per the state’s data, 40,000 or more per 100,000) while Norfolk and Portsmouth just broke the 10,000 per 100,000 line, and Hopewell isn’t even there yet? Uneven state distribution, better local management or high numbers of refusals in some cities?

    1. Steve Haner Avatar
      Steve Haner

      Update 22 hours later… well, those numbers have disappeared from the VDH website today! Salem, Staunton and Waynesboro for example no longer indicate such deep vaccination penetration after all….question resolved. ?!?

      1. sherlockj Avatar
        sherlockj

        Rule #1 on VDH website:

        If you see something interesting, download or screen capture it. Information there is very transitory.

  3. ksmith8953 Avatar
    ksmith8953

    Who knows? With no practice scenarios, the blind are leading the blind.

  4. ksmith8953 Avatar
    ksmith8953

    Who knows? With no practice scenarios, the blind are leading the blind.

  5. sherlockj Avatar
    sherlockj

    Sometimes “government work” matters more than others. This is one of those times.

    The utter failure of Virginia’s emergency management and health bureaucracies to do their jobs either before or during the pandemic is, as I wrote here a while back, the biggest government scandal in Virginia history, and certainly the most consequential.

    But there will be no accountability and no consequences other than pay raises for those whose responsibilities these were.

    1. Steve Haner Avatar
      Steve Haner

      Another sign the state ain’t too bright, if this is true: Apparently they don’t have caller ID on their outgoing calls inviting people. You’d think they’d have calls marked “Dept of Health” or “State of VA” or something so it doesn’t look like spam….but the advice is pick any call that looks like junk, it may be them…

      1. Nancy_Naive Avatar
        Nancy_Naive

        Of course, unless you choose email as the contact preference.

        Oooh, oooh, “IRS”. That’ll make ’em want to answer the call.

    2. Nathan Avatar
      Nathan

      People who work for government are human. They react similarly to everyone else in that they will put the most effort into the things which are rewarded. I’ve been watching this in action for the last 20 years.

      If someone shines a bright light on single points of failure and gaping vulnerabilities, they will be punished. That’s happened to me multiple times.

      What’s rewarded? That’s easy to see.

      “Virginia Department of Emergency Management Receives Governor’s Honor Award for Ongoing Efforts to Enhance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion”

      https://www.vaemergency.gov/virginia-department-of-emergency-management-receives-governors-honor-award-for-ongoing-efforts-to-enhance-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/

      If we want a different result, we need to change what we reward.

  6. sherlockj Avatar
    sherlockj

    Sometimes “government work” matters more than others. This is one of those times.

    The utter failure of Virginia’s emergency management and health bureaucracies to do their jobs either before or during the pandemic is, as I wrote here a while back, the biggest government scandal in Virginia history, and certainly the most consequential.

    But there will be no accountability and no consequences other than pay raises for those whose responsibilities these were.

    1. Steve Haner Avatar
      Steve Haner

      Another sign the state ain’t too bright, if this is true: Apparently they don’t have caller ID on their outgoing calls inviting people. You’d think they’d have calls marked “Dept of Health” or “State of VA” or something so it doesn’t look like spam….but the advice is pick any call that looks like junk, it may be them…

      1. Nancy_Naive Avatar
        Nancy_Naive

        Of course, unless you choose email as the contact preference.

        Oooh, oooh, “IRS”. That’ll make ’em want to answer the call.

    2. Nathan Avatar
      Nathan

      People who work for government are human. They react similarly to everyone else in that they will put the most effort into the things which are rewarded. I’ve been watching this in action for the last 20 years.

      If someone shines a bright light on single points of failure and gaping vulnerabilities, they will be punished. That’s happened to me multiple times.

      What’s rewarded? That’s easy to see.

      “Virginia Department of Emergency Management Receives Governor’s Honor Award for Ongoing Efforts to Enhance Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion”

      https://www.vaemergency.gov/virginia-department-of-emergency-management-receives-governors-honor-award-for-ongoing-efforts-to-enhance-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/

      If we want a different result, we need to change what we reward.

  7. Bill O'Keefe Avatar
    Bill O’Keefe

    Thank you for this clear explanation.

  8. Bill O'Keefe Avatar
    Bill O’Keefe

    Thank you for this clear explanation.

  9. Steve Haner Avatar
    Steve Haner

    “When it is your turn for a vaccination, you will receive an email, phone call or text message from your local health department or a partner provider (such as a hospital, pharmacy, or physician) with information to schedule your appointment.”

    So that is in my mailbox this morning from VDH. Implies that VDH is deciding who gets a shot, even if through a pharmacy or doc’s office? Don’t call us, we’ll call you….just sign up here and be patient….It is better now to have confirmation we’re on the list….

  10. Steve Haner Avatar
    Steve Haner

    “When it is your turn for a vaccination, you will receive an email, phone call or text message from your local health department or a partner provider (such as a hospital, pharmacy, or physician) with information to schedule your appointment.”

    So that is in my mailbox this morning from VDH. Implies that VDH is deciding who gets a shot, even if through a pharmacy or doc’s office? Don’t call us, we’ll call you….just sign up here and be patient….It is better now to have confirmation we’re on the list….

  11. Nathan Avatar
    Nathan

    “– Vaccines will not be available for approximately six months following identification of the virus and will be in limited quantities when made available, necessitating the need to develop and implement a distribution plan.”

    Where did the “six months” figure come from? Sounds like someone pulled that number out of their butt.

    Please see the quotes below from Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health (and Dr. Anthony Fauci’s boss).

    “The Operation Warp Speed, for which I give a great deal of credit to [former HHS] Secretary [Alex] Azar, was an effort that many of us were not initially convinced was going to be necessary,” Collins said.

    “And it was thought about as a ‘Manhattan Project,’” Collins continued. “Those words were used sometimes to describe what needed to happen in order to get all parts of the government together in an unprecedented way to test up to six vaccines in rigorous trials — and to do this at-risk manufacturing so that if any of those trials happen to work, you would already have doses ready to go into arms. That would not be the way things are traditionally done.”

    “That that got done in 11 months from when we first knew about this virus is at least five years faster than it’s ever been before before,” Collins said.

    https://www.theblaze.com/news/fauci-boss-credits-trump-administration-covid-vaccine

    1. sherlockj Avatar
      sherlockj

      Overall, the guidance was prescient. Your observation is correct, but truly a nit-pick.

      The date that the vaccine became available was not a factor in the planning required, just the fact that there would be one and it had to be distributed and administered in some pre-scripted and supported way.

      See my column on this this morning.

      1. Nathan Avatar
        Nathan

        “Your observation is correct, but truly a nit-pick.”

        True.

        We will probably continue to founder with COVID-19 but as tragic as it’s been, there will be numerous for lessons learned. That’s why your articles are important. Thanks for doing them.

        1. sherlockj Avatar
          sherlockj

          You are welcome.

  12. Nathan Avatar
    Nathan

    “– Vaccines will not be available for approximately six months following identification of the virus and will be in limited quantities when made available, necessitating the need to develop and implement a distribution plan.”

    Where did the “six months” figure come from? Sounds like someone pulled that number out of their butt.

    Please see the quotes below from Dr. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health (and Dr. Anthony Fauci’s boss).

    “The Operation Warp Speed, for which I give a great deal of credit to [former HHS] Secretary [Alex] Azar, was an effort that many of us were not initially convinced was going to be necessary,” Collins said.

    “And it was thought about as a ‘Manhattan Project,’” Collins continued. “Those words were used sometimes to describe what needed to happen in order to get all parts of the government together in an unprecedented way to test up to six vaccines in rigorous trials — and to do this at-risk manufacturing so that if any of those trials happen to work, you would already have doses ready to go into arms. That would not be the way things are traditionally done.”

    “That that got done in 11 months from when we first knew about this virus is at least five years faster than it’s ever been before before,” Collins said.

    https://www.theblaze.com/news/fauci-boss-credits-trump-administration-covid-vaccine

    1. sherlockj Avatar
      sherlockj

      Overall, the guidance was prescient. Your observation is correct, but truly a nit-pick.

      The date that the vaccine became available was not a factor in the planning required, just the fact that there would be one and it had to be distributed and administered in some pre-scripted and supported way.

      See my column on this this morning.

      1. Nathan Avatar
        Nathan

        “Your observation is correct, but truly a nit-pick.”

        True.

        We will probably continue to founder with COVID-19 but as tragic as it’s been, there will be numerous for lessons learned. That’s why your articles are important. Thanks for doing them.

        1. sherlockj Avatar
          sherlockj

          You are welcome.

  13. Nancy_Naive Avatar
    Nancy_Naive

    VACCINATION! Oh, now these comments make sense.
    Man, vacation plan and these comments make no sense at all. Nobody vacations in Virginia this time of year. Cold rain is nothing for which to take time from work.

  14. Nancy_Naive Avatar
    Nancy_Naive

    VACCINATION! Oh, now these comments make sense.
    Man, vacation plan and these comments make no sense at all. Nobody vacations in Virginia this time of year. Cold rain is nothing for which to take time from work.

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