Counties asked: Are you ready?
Agencies asked to gauge their ability to receive, administer COVID-19 vaccines
The state health department sent an email to New York’s county health departments late Wednesday “to gauge the capability ” of the local agencies to receive and administer COVID -19 vaccines.
The request, which was sent at 10 p.m., asked the health agencies to respond by noon on Thursday. It came as some county leaders in
New York have questioned why regional hospitals were given a lead role in setting up vaccination strategies after counties have for years been planning for mass vaccinations.
“Could you please respond to this very quick survey indicating when your (local health department) is prepared to directly receive and administer vaccine ... as well as an estimate of the number of doses you
can administer (to the nearest 100) for the few weeks ahead,” Loretta Santilli, director of the state health department’s Office of Public Health, wrote in the email.
There has been some confusion about whether local health departments — many of which have established volunteer Medical Reserve Corps to oversee mass vaccinations — would have an integral role in administering the shots. In the greater Capital Region, a seven-county “hub” for vaccination planning is being headed by Albany Medical Center.
“It kind of threw us for a loop when it went to Albany Med and it took it out of the control of the health department,” Albany County Executive Daniel Mccoy said this week. “But it’s a good thing and it’s a different approach. We’re making it work.”
Dr. Elizabeth Whalen, Albany County ’s health commissioner, echoed those comments during a Thursday afternoon conference call with the region’s vaccination hub team.
“It’s an elephant in the room and all of us know that originally local health departments were tasked with (vaccination planning ) … and so this has kind of thrown us a little bit for a loop,” Whalen said. “Whatever way we thought this was going to go down, it was always a collaboration. It was always going to have to involve every single one of us working together. I think now all of us are in the position that we need to embrace this model and we need to work with it.”
During that conference call, Dr. Dennis P. Mckenna, CEO and president of Albany Med, acknowledged a Times Union story that first appeared online Wednesday that highlighted some of the unrest among county leaders who have questioned why hospitals were being put in charge of the hubs.
“So let me be very clear about that... We didn’t ask for it,” Mckenna said. “Number two, we’re proud to serve in that role primarily because we get to work with all of you. We are not going to vaccinate a million people. We have begun vaccinating our staff here ... but really, it’s you who are going to do the bulk of the vaccinations. … The plans that you’ve developed … are the plans that are going to be used, and that’s what we’ve said from the very beginning.”
New York has administered about 100,000 doses of coronavirus vaccine to hospital and other frontline health care workers, including paramedics and firefighters. Some of those individuals are driving to other counties to receive their shots because not all counties have access to the vaccines.
During the conference call on Thursday, some county leaders noted there have been glitches with a software system that state has implemented to track who has received vaccinations and where. State officials are working to help clear up those technical issues, they said.
Dr. Daniel Kuhles, who worked for the state health department before recently being named commissioner of Saratoga County ’s Public Health Services, raised questions about whether contact tracing is worthwhile when the rate of infection for COVID -19 is surging again.
“It just is not effective at this point,” Kuhles said. “Contact tracing loses its effectiveness as RT (rate of transmission) goes up. The horse is out of the barn right now, quite frankly, and the control measures that work at these levels of (transmission) are community mitigation ... and vaccination.”
Kuhles said many counties are devoting significant resources to contact tracing when they should be using those resources to help with vaccinating their population.
“This is the way to end the pandemic, not trying to contact-trace 300 people that may not answer their phone or be honest,” he said.
Many county leaders also have questioned the state health department about why people who may be called on to administer vaccines at the county level — including paramedics and nurses — are not eligible to be vaccinated in the early stages of the distribution.
Rensselaer County Health Commissioner Mary Fran Wachunas said during Thursday ’s conference call that those people administering the vaccines could become infected by someone receiving the shot, and if it spreads an entire “point of distribution” site could need to be shut down.
“I can’t stress enough to advocate that public health has to be vaccinated,” she said.
Officials on the call said that a state health official this week confirmed that those local health department workers administering vaccines would not qualify to receive it along with hospital workers and first responders. But another official said that on a separate call with Howard Zucker, the state’s health commissioner, he acknowledged it was a good idea and that he would bring it back to the department for reconsideration.
Mckenna said the plan for the Capital Region hub — which includes Albany, Columbia, Greene, Rensselaer, Saratoga, Schenectady and Warren counties — is to have local health departments administer vaccinations to the public. But Whalen, Albany County ’s health commissioner, noted that may not be occurring everywhere in the state.
“We’re hearing it’s not uniform that the hubs are bringing local health departments in — so, well done ( here),” she said during the call. “We do have the planning expertise and we have plans developed. I think the idea for our health departments to share our plans with the regional hub is essential.”
Counties have for years been planning for a mass vaccination under training programs funded with federal grants administered by the state.
Gareth Rhodes, a member of Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s coronavirus task force, this week said the county health departments and their predesignated “points of distribution” vaccination sites will still be integral to the state’s regional setup.
“That doesn’t throw their plan in the trash, that just says we’re not just dumping the vaccine on your doorstep and saying, ‘ You have a plan, we assume it’s going to work — go for it,’” Rhodes said. “Then when it goes wrong, everyone blames the state.”
The only populations that are approved to receive the vaccine for the next week in New York are hospital health care workers, emergency service workers, medical examiners and funeral home directors. Others eligible to receive it include residents and staff at long-term care facilities and in congregate settings, including group homes for developmentally disabled individuals.