Federal vaccination site to open in city
White House officials announced Wednesday morning a new federal mass vaccination site would be set up in Memphis.
It will be the first federally-run, mass vaccination site in Tennessee, Andy Slavitt, White House Senior Advisor for COVID-19 Response, said in a press briefing Wednesday morning. Federal personnel have already been deployed to Memphis, and the site will be up and running by April 7.
The site, operated in collaboration with the state and local officials, will be at the Pipkin Building. Federal authorities and city officials plan to administer 3,000 doses a day at the site.
The White House’s announcement comes at a time when local authorities have been pushing to combat falling vaccine demand and expand uptake in minority populations.
Slavitt echoed recent comments by President Joe Biden, saying, “We’re in a life and death race against the virus.”
“Faced with an accelerating threat, this administration is accelerating our response even further. The most powerful way to do this is by accelerating the pace of vaccinations,” he said.
The Memphis site will operate 12 hours a day, seven days a week for a sixto eight-week period, and the federal government will provide medical and non-medical personnel to assist with site operation. It will mark a significant expansion of vaccine supply in Memphis.
Military personnel from the 3rd Marine Division will support the admini
stration of these additional vaccines.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be providing vaccine to the site.
“We are committed to the equitable distribution of the vaccine and our top priority is to ensure everyone who wants a vaccine gets one,” said Gracia Szczech, regional administrator for FEMA Region IV. “Expanding the vaccination center at the Pipkin Building will help make that happen.”
Racial disparities persist in vaccine distribution
Doug Mcgowen, city of Memphis chief operating officer and Shelby County vaccine czar, said the Pipkin Building was chosen for the federallyrun site because it is in the center of Memphis and is close to several neighborhoods with high social vulnerability indexes and where vaccine uptake has been slow so far.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said COVID-19 has disproportionately impacted Black, Hispanic and Latino and Native American communities across the country.
Shelby County has been no exception.
According to the most recent data from the Shelby County Health Department, 56% of COVID-19 cases in the county, which authorities have race data for, have been Black individuals, while 36% of cases have been white individuals and 13% have been other races. However, race data is missing for almost 20,000 of the 91,220 reported cases in Shelby County.
Of the 1,569 reported Covid-19-related deaths in Shelby County, 910 have been Black individuals, 570 have been white and 84 have been other races. Race data is missing for five of the reported deaths.
As of Wednesday, 317,937 total COVID-19 vaccine doses had been given out in Shelby County and 103,220 people had gotten two shots, according to the Shelby County Health Department. About 11% of the total county population has been fully vaccinated, meaning they have received two shots of either the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
Demographic data from the health
department on the vaccines administered locally shows minority populations have lagged behind in vaccine distribution. White Shelby County residents account for 44% of all vaccine doses given, while Black residents account for 33% and other races account for 15% of doses given out. Race data is missing for 8% of vaccine doses distributed.
Medical and public health officials have said many factors are likely contributing to the racial disparity in vaccine distribution. One factor could be that the majority of vaccines given out in Shelby County have gone to people 55 and older and Black people, for a variety of socioeconomic factors, have shorter life expectancies than white people.
The ability to access vaccine sites has been named as another barrier, one federal officials said they were looking to combat by expanding federally-run sites.
Federal site to expand supply in Shelby County
Mcgowen said the direct supply of vaccine to the Pipkin site from the federal government will be in addition to the about 30,000 doses the county receives from the state of Tennessee each week. The additional capacity will bring the county’s total available appointments to about 51,000 a week, Mcgowen said in an interview Wednesday.
Mcgowen added the site’s goal is to run 21,000 appointments a week for the next six weeks. The site will undergo a
test run on April 6 and open fully on April 7 with expanded capacity.
The federal government is helping build a tent at the Pipkin to allow for more cars to go through the site at once, Mcgowen said. At present, the Pipkin site runs two lines of cars through the building at one time.
The increase in staffing and appointments at the Pipkin Building will lead to drawdowns of staffing at the Appling Emissions Station site, which will go from six to four days a week, Mcgowen said. A municipal vaccination site in Bartlett will help pick up the slack in eastern Shelby County, he said.
The Memphis mass-vaccination site was one of three announced by the White House Wednesday. The other two will be in Milwaukee and Greenbelt, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, D.C. Those three sites join the two announced Monday in Gary, Indiana, and St. Louis.
All the selected cities have majority minority populations and were chosen, in part, based on the CDC’S Social Vulnerability Index, which includes socioeconomic status, household composition, minority status, languages, housing type and transportation.
“The goal of establishing these joint federal pilot centers is to continue to expand the rate of vaccinations in an efficient, effective and equitable manner, with an explicit focus on making sure that communities with a high risk of COVID-19 exposure and infection are not left behind,” the White House said in an emailed statement.
Slavitt said within a few weeks, there would be about 70,000 vaccination sites across the county, up from about 50,000 operational at the end of March. That is due, in part, to an expansion of the number of pharmacies giving out COVID-19 vaccines.
“More Americans will be able to get more appointments in more convenient locations,” he said. “The president also committed to opening at least 12 more federally-run mass vaccination sites.”
Walensky said by April 19, there will be a vaccination site within 5 miles of 90% of all Americans.
‘We can’t afford to let our guard down’
The pace of vaccinations in Shelby County has steadily increased over the last two weeks. More than 56,000 doses have been given out in the past seven days, according to county health department data.
Slavitt and Walensky all encouraged Americans to get vaccinated, but also pleaded with people to continue to wear masks, social distance and take other infection control measures.
“As we see increases in cases, we can’t afford to let our guard down. We are so close, so very close to getting back to the everyday activities we all miss so much,” Walensky said Wednesday.
Currently, the City of Memphis and the University of Tennessee Health Science Center-affiliated University Clinical Health run five permanent vaccination sites in Shelby County, along with additional temporary and pop-up sites around the county. The Bartlett vaccination site will be the sixth permanent vaccination site in the county.
Walmart, Walgreens, Kroger, First Pharmacy Services, Community Supplemental Foods and the Memphis VA Medical Center are also offering COVID-19 vaccines in Shelby County.
Vaccinations are now open to everyone 16 and older in Shelby County. People looking to schedule an appointment can do so through the city’s website, https://covid19.memphistn.gov/, the Shelby County Health Department website, shelby.community or by calling the vaccine hotline, 901-222-7468.
Commercial Appeal reporter Samuel Hardiman contributed to this report.
Corinne S Kennedy covers economic development, soccer and COVID-19’S impact on hospitals for the Commercial Appeal. She can be reached via email at Corinne.kennedy@commercialappeal.com or at 901-297-3245.