Shot in the arm
Coronavirus vaccination program had a rocky rollout at first but the kinks are smoothing out Ramp up: Number of vaccinations increase three-fold since last week
Michigan went through a rocky rollout of the vaccine during a COVID-19 surge and the holidays. The good news is that the vaccination program is now running more smoothly. The numbers prove it.
On Jan. 6, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer expanded the plan to include those in phase 1B — anyone over age 65 and essential workers such as teachers. She also pushed for 90 percent of the vaccine to be in arms within seven days of distribution.
“As a result of those strategic moves, shots in arms for the last week went from 12,000 a day to over 33,000 a day. Let me repeat, we tripled the number of shots in arms in one week,’’ Trish Foster, Whitmer’s chief operating officer and executive lead on the state’s operational response to continuing COVID, said on Wednesday.
Last week six times the number of Michiganders were vaccinated compared to the first week of the vaccine administration in mid-December.
The state’s goal is to vaccinate 70 percent of the population over age 16 (5.6 million people) as quickly as possible.
The hitch is the amount of vaccine that Michigan receives from the federal government.
“We were originally told Michigan would receive over 300,000 vaccines per week and planned accordingly,’’ Foster said. “But that weekly number has been significantly reduced. For example, Michigan has received only 60,000 Pfizer vaccines per week for the last few weeks. Those have been distributed to providers.’’
A cursory look at the numbers shows that 831,150 doses have been distributed to the state while just 332,139 have been administered (as of Jan. 14).
The difference in those two numbers equals the number of appoint
ments made and the shots that have been administered but not reported, Foster explained. Shots must be reported within 24 hours.
That huge lag is not because the state is keeping the vaccine on shelves, it’s because it takes time to schedule due to the uncertainty of how much will be delivered to each location each week.
The state’s original plan was to vaccinate nearly 50,000 people per day.
“That is impossible with the number of vaccines we are receiving each week. There is not enough vaccine to go around and thankfully demand is increasing,’’ Foster said. “We need the federal government to step up and get more vaccines out the door so you can get an appointment to get your vaccine.’’
The Trump administration announced this week it was going to ship out millions of doses that had been on hold to use for second doses. (Each vaccine requires two doses.) A state’s ability to administer vaccines efficiently could be a factor in how much vaccine they receive.
“Effective two weeks from now, we are changing how we allocate first doses among the states, in order to ensure doses are being put
to use and put to use for the most vulnerable. We will be allocating them based on the pace of administration as reported by states and by the size of the 65 and over population in each state,’’ Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said this week.
The Oakland County Health Division has received 7,800 doses and administered 5,600. They have 17,221 appointments set through February.
The county has a feature on their website (Oak Gov.com) called “Save Your Spot.” By signing up, you will be notified when an appointment is available.
So far in Oakland County, including vaccinations given
at hospitals and other facilities, 46,252 vaccines have been administered of the 81,725 doses distributed.
“It takes anywhere from 18 to 28 minutes per person to administer a vaccine. We took a different route, we wanted to do it orderly. We wanted to have people sign up for shots,’’ Foster said. “Because of that it’s not instantaneous. It wasn’t going to be instantaneous anyway, it takes time.’’
Vaccinations take much more time than COVID testing where you fill out a form and get swabbed.
“We have to have people fill out paperwork and schedule their second shot. This is time consuming. They have to have a shot that’s administered
by someone qualified to do that and we have to have an EMT on site in the rare event that there’s some kind of reaction,’’ Whitmer explained. After getting the shot people are asked to wait for 15 minutes to ensure there is no reaction.
It has been a process. “Let’s think back to December when we thought we were getting 300,000 vaccines and that number was curtailed significantly,’’ Foster said. “Let’s remember the population that we were supposed to vaccinate first — our health care workers who were treating patients during the biggest surge Michigan has ever seen.
“I’m going to request a little grace and a little humility as we got ramped up. They did exactly as we asked. They’re putting 90 percent of shots in arms on a weekly basis. They should be congratulated as heroes, not only to the front line, but heroes in the vaccination lines,’’ Foster added.
It’s been 10 months since the COVID-19 pandemic first hit Michigan. The vaccine is the greatest tool to end it, but it is going to take months to reach all of those longing for a shot.
“Nobody is where we want to be at this stage, but we are getting better each and every day,’’ Foster said. “The greater the supply we get, the easier it will be to get to that original plan of 50,000 shots in arms per day.’’