Gov. Jim Justice announced a vaccination effort called “Save Our Wisdom” to focus on residents above ages 80, 70 and 60, along with a series of vaccination clinics around the state.
“We can’t let the wisdom just die away,” Justice said during a briefing today.
That comes as local health departments describe vaccine demand for residents 80 and older far outpacing supply of the vaccine.
Kanawha County’s health department has reported overloaded phone lines as it has asked those citizens to arrange appointments for vaccinations.
The Randolph-Elkins Health Department described uncertainty about when supplies would be available or what groups are intended to receive vaccine with the next doses.
The Jackson County Health Department distributed 100 doses earlier this week and has another 150 to distribute tomorrow, by appointment only. But the waiting list for ages 80 and older is 300 and growing.
“Yes, our phones ring nonstop from about 6:30 in the morning until about 9, 10 o’clock at night,” said Amy Haskins, administrator for the Jackson County Health Department.
“Most health departments are in the same position we are, where if we were given 500 to a thousand doses of vaccine we could get rid of that in one or two days.”
Haskins said calls are coming from people ages 60 or 70, including many with serious health conditions. But right now, the health department has to tell them no.
“We have the entire gamut of ages calling us, but we only have permission at this point to vaccinate 80 and older,” Haskins said.
“For some it’s very frustrating, because they have letters from their doctors, they may be high risk. They have to wait until the governor opens that avenue.”
West Virginia leaders have phases of different aspects of society lined up for vaccinations, although they are not one at a time. There is overlap of the efforts.
Healthcare workers have been receiving vaccinations. Teachers above age 50 are set to receive vaccinations starting tomorrow. Government officials and workers have been receiving evacuations too.
Asked today about whether priorities should be reconsidered given the demand for senior citizens to be vaccinated versus limited supply of vaccine, the leader of the state’s vaccination effort, James Hoyer, described attending to more than one group at once.
“This is clearly a balancing act,” Hoyer said today.
“We’re doing it the way we think best fits the State of West Virginia and trying to create the balance the governor asked us to do.”
Speaking today on MetroNews’ “Talkline,” Hoyer said 11,212 state residents around age 80 had been vaccinated so far.
“Every shot we get in an arm, no matter how confusing it might be right now, we are potentially saving a life,” Hoyer said.
But Hoyer agreed the supply is still not ideal.
“This week, we got 7.000 less than what we had originally anticipated in our planning process from the federal government,” Hoyer said.
“This country needs to get and produce more vaccines. We’ve failed to do what we need to do to meet the demand and we need to get that fixed,” he said of the federal effort so far.
Hoyer concluded, “We’ll continue to make this better for folks as we can.”
James Hoyer, Retired National Guard General, speaks with @HoppyKercheval about vaccine distribution. WATCH: https://t.co/wkudfIRZCB pic.twitter.com/7YH4XNxPTu
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) January 6, 2021
At the Jackson County Health Department, few promises are made.
Haskins said she doesn’t promise people they’ll get a dose until the vaccine is in hand. And the health department doesn’t keep a waiting list of those under age 80 because no one knows when their time will come.
“Every day you walk in and things change. It is a very fluid situation so we have to be able to move in whatever direction we’re being asked to move very quickly and at the drop of a hat. That’s sometimes very difficult to get the general public to understand,” Haskins said. “Especially when it’s someone on the other end going through chemo or has a lot of underlying health conditions, but I don’t have the vaccine to give them.
“The staff here, we hate telling people ‘I’m sorry we cannot vaccinate you at this time.'”