Two recent versions of the vaccine dispatches provided by Barbara Hemmendinger of the Lycoming County Health Improvement Coalition are shared below.
In addition, it should be noted that we are _still_ in Phase 1A. We are further along in that phase and some additional people have been moved up in the queue, specifically K-12 educators (and other school staff, like administrators, bus drivers, etc). But the expansion does NOT apply to higher education (ahem, Bucknell!), though that group is expected to be included in Phase 1B which we hope starts soon.
You may be asking who IS currently eligible? Why, you need to check the Your Turn tool on the Department of Health website!
In the assessment tool, astute readers will note that educators are not officially part of the current phase at all. There is understandable confusion over this and the fact that vaccine providers are not necessarily gatekeeping when they make appointments is making room for people to push the envelope. The K-12 process, which was set up to be handled entirely outside the public vaccine administration pipeline to bypass confusion about the expanded eligibility (the educators do _not_ show up as eligible for vaccination at other sites, at least not on the basis of employment), has been hacked by overeager vaccine seekers. In order to accelerate vaccination for school staff without actually changing the phases, the state arranged for an entirely separate system for them, whereby the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine would be scheduled and administered by Intermediate Units around the state. School district employees were invited to private vaccination drives not otherwise open to the public. The IUs were to directly schedule the educators in their territory. But some custom appointment sign-up links made it into circulation. The result was that contractors for the Department of Health had to spend hours last week calling non-educators who had availed themselves of educator appointments.
How would you know this? By being attuned to every vibration of the COVID-19 transmission waves of course. Or ferreting out every press release from the Department of Health. Or watching all the state press conferences... It is admittedly not all that clear when you visit the DOH website. We are all too often finding ourselves off on quests for Very Specific Information which very often proves impossible to track down.
Long story short, lots of people are really eager to be vaccinated. Yay! The bad news is we still don't have sufficient supply to meet the massive demand. Boo! In the meantime, just try to sit tight (and wear some really good masks).
LCHIC UPDATE AS OF 3/18/2021:
Let’s not snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Everyone needs to keep masking, social distancing, and practicing good hand hygiene for several more months at least. March and April are expected to be critical times for pandemic control. As of Saturday, our nation was averaging about 60,000 new Covid-19 cases a day. This is the lowest seven-day average since October and about 10% below the average on February 21st, when the recent steep decline in cases slowed down. While this is encouraging, the present rate of infection still equals last summer’s peak. As Dr. Fauci put it, “We’re plateauing at quite a high level.” He added that unless vaccine uptake and public health measures outpace this, new surges could follow.
President Biden announced an encouraging development this week. His administration will send out technical teams to help states improve their vaccination websites, and the federal government will open a website by May 1st that will allow Americans to find out where the vaccine is available. Just yesterday, former President Trump also acknowledged that Covid vaccines are safe, that “they work”, and he urged his supporters to get immunized. (MARCH 29 UPDATE: the federal government now says that vaccines will be available to all adults in all states by April 19.)
Moving from the U.S. to Pennsylvania, immunizations continue here for people in Phase 1A and for educators and staff in childcare, pre-K, primary, and secondary schools. Data we have obtained show that River Valley Health Community Health Center in Williamsport averages some 1,000 Covid vaccines administered each week, and that last weekend’s I.U. 17 site at Williamsport Area Middle School immunized some 1,800 people.
Demand for vaccines among eligible Pennsylvanians remains high, and the good news is that on March 16th, Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam updated an order making March 31st the date by which vaccine providers should have scheduled all remaining Phase 1A-eligible Pennsylvanians’ vaccine appointments. The amended order also requires providers to make appointments with patients outside of their current patient network.
“This order requires vaccine providers to use all reasonable efforts to meet [the Phase 1A] goal by the end of the month,” Acting Secretary Beam said. “Providers also are encouraged to consider other barriers to vaccination…and tackle those so that our most vulnerable can most easily access the vaccine.” Solutions may include cost-free transportation, which we have previously discussed, alternate vaccination hours, mobile clinic opportunities, and targeted community vaccination events.
In an important change, the Pennsylvania Department of Health (DOH) has updated the vaccine allocation map shared on its website so that eligible Pennsylvanians can see which providers have vaccine (as is reflected in today’s markedly different PDF file, attached) and the variety of ways their vaccines are being offered.
Covid vaccines are given at no cost to everyone regardless of whether they have insurance or are citizens. People who do not yet fall into eligible categories should be assured that they will have the opportunity to schedule their vaccinations on or before May 1st. Skipping ahead of one’s eligible category in the appointment process causes extra work for providers and schedulers, and more importantly, leaves the most vulnerable people at heightened risk when their reserved vaccines mistakenly go to individuals who are ineligible.
I am attaching DOH's most recent list of the approved provider sites in our four counties that have received vaccines in the past week intended for first dose appointments. You may notice that a few previous providers are not highlighted. In some cases, that is because they did not receive first dose deliveries this week, and in others, it is because their flagship locations may have received those deliveries on their behalf and are redistributing them to satellite clinics. We will provide another update on Monday, March 22nd, and I invite you to share this document and to direct people to the LCHIC website for current provider information in our counties.
PREVIOUS 3/15/21 UPDATE:
The Commonwealth reports that 1.2 million Pennsylvanians are fully vaccinated, with a 7-day moving average of 76,000 vaccine doses/day administered as March 15th.
Single dose J&J vaccination sites hosted by Pennsylvania's I.U.s for contracted public and private educators (pre-K to grade 12) and staff are up and running. We have anecdotal information that Lycoming County’s clinic held at Williamsport Area Middle School on Friday and Saturday was efficiently managed and well-attended. [The same seems to be true for the CSIU offering in Montandon.] Childcare workers’ immunizations will be provided soon at designated Rite Aid, Topco, and Walmart pharmacies using a separate allocation of the J&J vaccine. Educators and childcare staff should continue to await word from their administrators about their turns and means to schedule appointments.
Vaccines are provided at no cost to everyone regardless of insurance or citizenship status. Other than the prioritized people just mentioned who are critical to opening schools and childcare safely, please remember that for everyone else, Pennsylvania remains in Phase 1A. The goal, of course, is to have all adults in the U.S. eligible to schedule COVID vaccination appointments by May 1st. That, of course, does not mean that appointments will occur by that date; simply that increased supply will make scheduling possible.
FREE transportation is available to people who have scheduled vaccine appointments… Rabbit Transit for Union County (800-632-9063) will provide shared rides by appointment only made at least the day before the scheduled visit.
The Pennsylvania Department of Health’s (DOH) most current list of approved vaccine provider sites in our four counties has remained unchanged for the past week. However, I add the disclaimer that all approved COVID vaccine physicians’ offices are again listed without qualification, because their practice administrators underscore the Commonwealth’s requirement to offer available vaccines to their eligible patients as well as to people not enrolled in those practices as patients. For those of you who keep track of deliveries of vaccine listed on the DOH distribution list for each week, please also be aware that the DOH data does not include Retail Pharmacy Partners or Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) like River Valley Community Health and Dental Center locally that receive separate allocations of vaccine directly from the federal government in addition to what they may also receive from the Commonwealth. [It should be noted that Union and Snyder Counties do not have any FQHCs. The nearest ones are in Shamokin, Millersburg, and Williamsport.] Finally, some larger health organizations are also contracted to redistribute vaccine to their satellite facilities so long as manufactures’ cold-chain procedures are followed assiduously. The attached drawing shows how vaccines decisions are made for Pennsylvania—truly a picture’s being worth at least 1,000 words!
Please make sure that you and the people with whom you interact know that mask-wearing is required in all Pennsylvania businesses and whenever leaving home, even when individuals are fully vaccinated. Consistent mask-wearing, social distancing, and hand hygiene remain critical to preventing the spread of COVID.
The websites below may continue to be useful in assisting eligible people to secure vaccine appointments:
