About 4 p.m. Friday, we learned the State of Illinois would be cutting down the amount of COVID-19 vaccine allocated to the DeKalb County Health Department by 75%.
That’s a fraction of what our vaccine allotment was before, from 1,200 to between just 200 to 300 per week. We’re told this reduction will likely last three weeks (so everything back to ‘normal’ by March 5?). I can’t say I’m optimistic it won’t last longer.
On Wednesday, Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker announced he’d be expanding eligibility for those who qualify to get the vaccine in the current phase by Feb. 25. At that time, eligibility could include those 16 and older with high-risk health issues or conditions.
Why? Why expand now when we can’t even commit to shipping 1,200 doses of vaccine to a collar county with 104,000 population size?
All week, our Daily Chronicle team has talked with local residents, many of them seniors, deeply frustrated, overwhelmed and concerned about the vaccine process as it stands. It’s all online registration portals that require a quick and regular connection to the internet, appointments that may or may not be canceled due to weather or allotment issues, and confusion over ‘when it’s my turn,’ and whether a second dose is assured.
We can’t even vaccinate those in Phase 1B right now as it stands, let alone accommodate even more of an over-demand when supply is so limited. All that’s going to do is over-exasperate those already exasperated by a vaccine registration system which has failed our seniors and all those who can’t scratch the system.
I am not saying I don’t want the vaccine to be available to as many people as possible. The more quickly we’re all immunized, the more likely we’ll get out of this nightmare.
However, opening the floodgates for an even larger stampede when we can hardly keep the current line moving regularly is irresponsible. Dangling a carrot to your constituents just to ease emotions doesn’t actually mean anything if you’re going to pull the carrot back again for three weeks.
Our local health departments, pharmacy workers and healthcare providers offering the vaccine are already inundated, and are (based on Friday’s last-minute, sparsely detailed announcement) not getting any help from the state.
We heard from pharmacists this week and have heard from officials at the county health department that it’s not that they don’t want to pick up the phone to answer everyone’s pressing questions. It’s that they often don’t know the answers either.
The Illinois Department of Public Health has not made it clear as to why this reduction occurred. Why now? Why this week, and not last? Or next week? And how do we know this reduction will only last 3 weeks? Was our vaccine supplier impacted? Was something lost in translation? Overpromised and miscommunicated?
When asked about it Friday, state and local health officials stressed the “vaccine supply is limited.” Well, that much we already knew.
What happened between this time last week and this week that limited the supply so that a little over 1,000 doses couldn’t even be promised to us in DeKalb County, to many who’d likely already set up appointments? It’s all speculation until we can ascertain the truth.
In the coming three weeks, health officials said second dose appointments will understandably need to be prioritized: folks were promised a second shot in the arm, and even if we’re only getting 200 doses per week, local health officials will try to honor that commitment.
Between the 30,000-plus DeKalb County folks who’ve registered to be notified by the county health department, those vying for an appointment through Northwestern Medicine pharmacy rollout or local clinics, we’ve got a long ways to go.
I understand the need by state leaders in Springfield to want to stem panic as folks clamor to get the vaccine. But over-promising and then under-delivering does nothing to calm the masses. If anything, it creates further division between the government and its citizens as we navigate these unchartered waters nearly a year in.
The state health department needs to be more transparent and communicative with local health departments so that they in turn can be more communicative to the communities they serve.
We need to work out the kinks in these blatant inefficiencies before the state continues to make more promises it can’t keep.
Read more at www.shawlocal.com: No walk-ins allowed: Health officials review what to expect for 1st COVID-19 vaccine dose
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