Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
So Sorry: Hospitals, Counties Apologize Over Vaccine Snafus And Line-Skips
The Seattle Times: Overlake Medical Center Donors Got Special Access To COVID-19 Vaccine; Inslee Rebukes Hospital System
Last Friday, Molly Stearns, chief development officer at Overlake Medical Center & Clinics, emailed about 110 donors who gave more than $10,000 to the Eastside hospital system, informing them that highly coveted vaccine slots were available. ... The email — and the appearance of favoritism that an Overlake leader acknowledged was a mistake — raised eyebrows. Overlake shut down online access to the invite-only clinic after getting a call from Gov. Jay Inslee’s staff. (Bush, Reicher and Brownstone, 1/27)
The Hill: Inslee Rebukes Hospital Over Vaccine Appointments For Donors
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D) castigated a Bellevue-based hospital system over an email in which leadership offered appointments for coronavirus vaccinations to major donors. “We’re pleased to share that we have 500 new open appointments in the Overlake COVID-19 vaccine clinic, beginning this afternoon and tomorrow (Saturday, Jan. 23) and next week,” Molly Stearns, chief development officer at Overlake Medical Center & Clinics, said in the email, according to The Seattle Times. (Budryk, 1/27)
CNN: Georgia Medical Center Suspended From Vaccination Program After Inoculating School District Staff
A rural Georgia medical center has been suspended from the state's Covid-19 vaccination program for six months after the facility administered vaccines to staff of the local school district. The Georgia Department of Public Health was notified Tuesday that the Medical Center of Elberton had been vaccinating Elbert County School District staff members who were outside of the Phase 1A+ category of people eligible for the vaccine. After an investigation, the DPH confirmed the information and suspended the medical center, a release from the department said. (Holcombe and Sutton, 1/28)
ABC News: County Apologizes For Seniors Having To Wait Outside In Cold For COVID-19 Vaccine
County officials in Kansas apologized after seniors had to wait for hours in freezing temperatures to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The county expanded vaccine eligibility to residents ages 80 and above this week. Many of those waiting in line outside the Johnson County Health Department-run vaccine clinic in Shawnee on Tuesday could be seen requiring assistance or the use of a walker. (Deliso, 1/27)
In other news about the vaccine rollout —
Salt Lake Tribune: Utah Can't Get Enough COVID-19 Vaccine To Fill The Demand
Utah ran out of doses of COVID-19 vaccine last week, and it’s about to run out again, Gov. Spencer Cox said Wednesday on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” That’s both “good news and bad news,” Cox said — good news because the state has done a better job of getting vaccines administered and “bad news, obviously, that we need more. We’ll run out very early this week because of the procedures that we put in place.” Cox said Utah is “doing much better” than “when I became governor three weeks ago” — moving from “about 36th” to “about ninth” in the nation for doses delivered. “We’re certainly trending in the right direction.” (Pierce, 1/27)
Stat: Twitter Thread Offers Window Into Chaotic Search For Covid-19 Shots
As an intensive care physician in Phoenix, Arghavan Salles has spent the past several months desperately trying to keep Covid-19 patients alive. She knows all too well how terrifying it is for them to be alone in a hospital room, away from their family and dependent on a machine for their every breath. That’s why earlier this month she was feverishly searching online and poring over state public health websites in an attempt to book a vaccination appointment for her mother in California. (St. Fleur, 1/28)
Boston Globe: While Some Struggle To Get Vaccine, Colleges And Hospitals Face A Different Problem: What To Do With Surplus Doses
Northeastern University had nearly 2,000 doses of precious COVID vaccine sitting in freezers last week after most of its front-line and emergency workers already had been immunized. So college officials informed the state that they planned to use the leftovers on other employees, including older adults and those with multiple medical conditions, who would soon be eligible under the state plan. On Monday, the university started immunizing those workers and planned to give shots to some 730 people throughout the week. But by Tuesday, the school’s vaccination clinic had come to an abrupt halt. The state wanted the college to limit immunizations to people who were 75 or older, a relatively tiny group on a college campus, and wait until sometime in February before expanding vaccinations. (Fernandes and Lazar, 1/27)
Bangor Daily News: Maine Is Struggling To Gauge Racial Disparities In COVID-19 Vaccine Access
More than 92,000 Mainers have received at least first doses of the vaccine as of Wednesday, while 28,700 have received both doses, according to data from the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention. The first phase targeted health care workers, residents of long term care facilities, first responders and certain other workers considered critical to the state’s virus response. Vaccinations were extended to Mainers age 70 and up last week. While the new data provide insight into how the vaccine has been allocated in Maine so far, gaps in the data with respect to race and ethnicity leave questions as to whether the distribution has been equitable. Other states have seen similar data problems. (Piper, 1/28)
KHN: At Colorado’s Rural Edges, Vaccines Help Assisted Living Homes Crack Open The Doors
Bingo is back in the dining room. In-person visits have returned, too, though with masks and plexiglass. The Haven Assisted Living Facility’s residents are even planning a field trip for a private movie screening once they’ve all gotten their second round of covid-19 vaccines. Such changes are small but meaningful to residents in the Hayden, Colorado, long-term care home, and they’re due mostly to the arrival of the vaccine. (Bichell, 1/28)
KHN: Huge Gaps In Vaccine Data Make It Next To Impossible To Know Who Got The Shots
As they rush to vaccinate millions of Americans, health officials are struggling to collect critically important information — such as race, ethnicity and occupation — of every person they jab. The data being collected is so scattered that there’s little insight into which health care workers, or first responders, have been among the people getting the initial vaccines, as intended — or how many doses instead have gone to people who should be much further down the list. (Pradhan and Schulte, 1/28)
