Barbara Hemmendinger from the Lycoming County Health Improvement Coalition (LCHIC) has been providing regular vaccine dispatches. She compiles key information and shares it to keep folks apprised of the complexity of vaccine distribution and of the human errors and unforeseeable events that cause people to feel vexed, as she puts it.

This is the updated list of approved provider sites for Covid-19 vaccines in the Lycoming region (including Union County) as of Feb 22.  There are no additional regional vaccination sites to report on according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s map and there are several important caveats about some already-approved sites:

• Family Practice Centers, PC (FPC), like other physician offices, are not being allocated more vaccine doses except to complete second dose administration for their patients who already received a first dose at that FPC site.  So, those offices are still listed as approved sites, but they are not scheduling new appointments.  Several respected physicians’ organizations are contesting the PA Department of Health's (DOH) order to disallow allocations to doctors’ offices, and the ultimate outcome remains unknown. 

• UPMC has begun to register people for vaccine appointments online.  Eligible individuals in Phase 1A (not just those 85-years-old and above) should phone 844-876-2822 or use this link.       

• Vaxstandby has changed its address to:  vaxstandby.hidrb.com  It’s a way of matching extra vaccine doses that could go to waste with eligible recipients in their geographic regions.

• According to the CDC, Pennsylvania ranks sixth in the US for total numbers of COVID vaccines administered (1,999,332) through Feb. 21^st.  This includes
  • First doses, 1,458,241 administered or 79% of those allocated
  • Second doses, 541,091 administered or 41% of those allocated

• Given those statistics, you may be wondering why it’s so hard and frustrating for eligible folks to get vaccine appointments here. 
  • Moderna had apparently not labeled shipments clearly with whether they were intended to be used for first or second doses before the vaccines were transported directly from the factory to providers.  Many providers, upon receiving those vaccine shipments, inadvertently administered second Moderna doses as first doses, instead, leading to a temporary shortage.  This meant that between 30,000 and 60,000 second-dose appointments needed to be pushed back closer to the CDC’s newly permitted 42-day interval between Moderna’s first and second doses.  Delivery of another 30,000 to 55,000 first Moderna doses was also being delayed to compensate.  This should all get back on track by mid-March, the DOH states.  The Pfizer vaccine was not affected. 
  • As if in a perfect storm, there were snowstorms and frigid weather last week that impacted shipments of all vaccines nationwide.  In fact, no vaccine providers in Lycoming, Clinton, Union, and Sullivan counties received any shipments of Pfizer or Moderna vaccines between Feb 14^th and Feb 20^th, according to DOH distribution data published today.  Normal shipments are underway now.

The list is updated regularly and LCHIC invites folks to direct others to their website for the current provider information in our counties. Even more important would be an effort to figure out who we need to make sure gets this information.  The goal is to make the information more accessible for those who have trouble with the interactive online map provided by the Department of Health. That could include people who do not have internet access at all or those who are online but not comfortable with things more involved than email. The list could be shared by email as either a pdf or image file. It could also be printed out and shared with service providers or area churches who could use it to assist those among their members who might be eligible now but held back by confusion.