How CT has led nation in COVID vaccinations
President Joe Biden on Tuesday set a goal of having 70 percent of the U.S. adult population receive at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine by July 4. Connecticut expects to reach that mark this week.
“We’ll be there probably today,” Josh Geballe, Connecticut’s chief operating officer, said Tuesday. “Today or tomorrow.”
But Geballe acknowledged the hill gets steeper to climb from this point on.
“That means there are another 30 percent who somewhat by definition are more hesitant or who are unsure if they want to get vaccinated,” he said.
Connecticut’s coronavirus metrics Tuesday went against the
general positive trend the state has seen in recent weeks. There were 343 total COVID-related hospitalizations, an increase of one from the previous day, and five more deaths for a total of 8,117 since the start of the pandemic.
There were 417 new COVID cases announced, 3.01 percent of all the tests performed came back positive.
But state officials and health experts are confident Connecticut is headed in the right direction.
Connecticut was the first state to have 50 percent of its adult population vaccinated against COVID-19, due to the relationship the state fostered with vaccine providers, according to Ohm Deshpande, who leads Yale New Haven Health’s vaccine efforts.
“There was a really productive relationship between the health care providers and the state of Connecticut,” Deshpande said. “They listened to the realities of how best to operationalize and get shots in arms without being overly sophisticated and overly perfect.”
“Not to say it was all roses all the time,” Deshpande said, though he did call the relationship “a mutually productive conversation.”
If Connecticut’s vaccine efforts thus far can be considered a success story, that reciprocal relationship between the vaccine providers and the state has been, experts said, one of a few key factors in achieving that success.
“The hospitals really rolled out the vaccine,” said Richard Martinello, medical director for infection prevention at Yale New Haven Health. “But the state, through the Department of Public Health and the governor's office, really worked closely with all the hospitals.”
Other states managed the rollout in a more centralized way, with state-run vaccination sites. Or, if they worked with outside providers, the process was strictly managed with monetary penalties if that process was not followed to the letter.
Connecticut, though, “did not impose caveats and did not impose penalties,” Deshpande said.
“We had to think about, how would our systems and our processes meet their expectations,” said Kim Metcalf, primary vaccine coordinator for UConn Health. “And if we veered off of our expectations, there was a collaborative discussion of how we can get you back on track, not a punitive approach.”
Metcalf said communication between the state Department of Public Health and vaccine providers began in December before a vaccine was available.
“The clinical leaders of the state were talking with the leaders in DPH for months before the vaccine was even approved and ready to ship,” she said.
From an operational perspective, Deshpande said the age-based rollout Connecticut employed early on gave the providers the simplicity they needed to get shots in arms as fast and as equitably as possible.
“Ultimately, we ended up doing better because we said, ‘Let’s make it operationally easier and focus on equity,’ ” he said.
Martinello agreed, though he did note that while it was simpler and faster to roll out the vaccine based on a hard metric like age, there were controversies.
“For COVID, it makes great sense, because age is far and away the single biggest risk factor for bad outcomes,” he said. “That said, this was really at the expense of people who had other serious issues that put them at higher risk, and they were left behind a little bit.”
Though Gov. Ned Lamont was criticized for employing an age-based strategy, Geballe said it was ultimately effective in “keeping the process simple, rather than dealing with a lot of confusion and bureaucracy that we saw in other states.”
The age-based rollout was so effective that when asked what Connecticut could have done differently, Geballe said he might have implemented and communicated that protocol sooner.
“It would have been helpful if we could have advocated that approach to the federal government and neighboring states,” he said. “We could have saved some lives.”
But the low-hanging fruit has already been picked. For the most part, everyone who wanted to be vaccinated has already been.
“We’ve seen a substantial drop in demand this past week,” Deshpande said.
The strategies have changed, shifting from mass vaccination sites to smaller, community-based approaches. Mobile clinics, walk-up sites, “all the way to door-to-door canvassing,” Geballe said.
The state has also been using “trusted messengers,” community leaders, to share the good news of vaccinations.
Though it will be an uphill battle, Geballe said statewide mandates or punitive action will not be the focus.
“The governor is more focused on incentives,” he said. “Carrots rather than sticks.”
Though the message may have to change, Martinello said strong-arm tactics won’t be effective.
“For people who are reticent, we don't necessarily change their minds with facts. But we can change their minds with stories,” he said. “The more that we dig in, and we push, and we criticize people who may be hesitant, or shame them in some way, the more obstinate they become.”