With pharmacies and doctor offices swarmed with phone calls, some politicians wonder what could’ve been different.
AUSTIN, Texas — As people within the 1B designation continue to be frustrated with COVID-19 allocation and administration, Texas politicians question how it has been handled at the state level.
“The infrastructure wasn’t set up for folks to know how to get that vaccine,” Rep. Erin Zwiener (D – Hays County) said. “That news comes out, folks start calling every pharmacy in town, they start calling doctors’ offices. They showed up at hospitals and it created a lot of confusion, a lot of extra work for the providers.”
Tarrytown Pharmacy got so many calls, their phones now direct people to the website.
“We have created a what we’re calling our communication list,” pharmacist Dr. Ellie Studdard said. “It asks you just a few questions. It’s essentially sorting you into different phases based on your age, your health conditions, your employment, wherever you’re working.”
Zwiener and other state and federal politicians question the decision to announce people within 1B, mainly seniors and people with chronic medical conditions making them more vulnerable to COVID-19, could get the vaccine.
“My understanding from state agencies was that that was probably another couple of weeks out,” Zwiener said. “It seems like there were a few parts of the state that really need to hear it. The challenge was folks didn’t know where to turn, what to do next.”
From the federal level, Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Austin) questioned the number and administration of vaccines.
However, pharmacies like Tarrytown, which received only 500 doses during one allocation, used all their vaccines. Tarrytown Pharmacy received the doses the Monday before Christmas and ran out of them nine days later on Dec. 30.
Most of the vaccines went to people in the 1A designation, but about 10 went to people in the 1B designation.
“We’re absolutely still going to prioritize phase 1A for anyone who hasn’t been immunized yet in that group,” Studdard said. “We’re now moved into phase 1B. They are going to be next as long as the slots don’t fill up with phase 1A, which I imagine that with the next shipment, it’ll be a mix between the two for sure.”
According to Zwiener, Texas still has about $2 billion of CARES Act funding left to spend before Dec. 31, 2021. She hopes that money will go toward smoothing out the distribution system.
“That should look like us investing in a centralized resource for providers to say what their sign-up opportunities are for whatever round of the vaccine we’re on. It should look like a comprehensive media information campaign to tell folks that this vaccine is safe and helps them protect themselves, their family and their larger community,” Zwiener said.
