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Ask your acquaintance who came up with the idea to call the groups 1A, 1B, and 1C, instead of numbering them 1,2,3,4,5. Do they really think we are that stupid that we would feel better being in a 1 category? That alone pisses me off to no end.
I am going to have to check out whether or not you have to be a Florida Resident. I have friends in The Villages.
Hogan will get a lot fewer votes from people over 65 at this point in time, if he ever runs for any office in the future, because of this.
LOL , What makes you more important that someone else ? I mean that with respect but I'm close to 70 and health issues all so but I believe there are others that need it before me. Front line workers for one ,seniors in assisted living facilities ,I can wait.
Hogan has done a hell of a job and he is one of the few Republicans that will stand up to the traitor trump ,he isn't worried about votes now, he is doing what is best for everyone.
LOL , What makes you more important that someone else ? I mean that with respect but I'm close to 70 and health issues all so but I believe there are others that need it before me. Front line workers for one ,seniors in assisted living facilities ,I can wait.
Hogan has done a hell of a job and he is one of the few Republicans that will stand up to the traitor trump ,he isn't worried about votes now, he is doing what is best for everyone.
There are people like me who have much worse conditions that cannot get it any sooner than I can, Go tell them their lives don't amount to anything. Since you go out of your way to denigrate anything I post, your statements above are meaningless to me in the first place. The only reason I haven't put you on ignore is that when you respond to one of my posts, I know I must be right.
I was told unofficially that there is such a high percentage of people in the 65-75 range that there was not much advantage in complicating the plan by creating a separate class of recipients. I have at least two classes of risk besides being over 65 so I wondered about it also so I asked an acquaintance who has access to the decision making process.
As far as I can tell, Maryland does not have a decision making process here. The vaccines are being distributed to hospitals, clinics, CVS/Walgreens directly and are not 'going through' Maryland. Those providing shots also seem to be reluctant, or just lazy, with reporting so we don't don't know how many doses have actually been given and Gov. Hogan has only recently decided to demand that hospitals etc. report what have been administered and threatened to withhold more doses to those who are under performing, but not sure how he will do that.
There are also those health care workers who are refusing vaccines, a few outright and the rest, it seems, want a wait and see. Absurd! Their job is to help keep others alive and comfortable and yet some, perhaps as much as 45%, are waiting to see how others react to vaccine before they get the shot themselves? Okay, that is their right to do so... but Maryland should be moving into the next phase instead of waiting on healthcare workers, first responders, etc. to make a decision. If they are not jumping at the chance to get the vaccine, they have already made their decision. The vaccine will still be available to them in the other phases, so let's get on with it.
In my opinion, there should just be a lottery system. When your number comes up, you accept or decline. Once we have gone through the population the vaccine opens up to everyone.
I am also not sure if I am in Phase 2 or Phase 3. Then again, a health condition might put me in Phase 1C. My wife is a lab scientist at a hospital and even she doesn't know what is going on.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Veniceman
You'll play heck getting here though. There are 10,000 people wanting it for every shot available. They run out as fast as it comes in.
Why? I mean 'Florida' didn't seem to mind the virus in the first place.
As far as I can tell, Maryland does not have a decision making process here. The vaccines are being distributed to hospitals, clinics, CVS/Walgreens directly and are not 'going through' Maryland. Those providing shots also seem to be reluctant, or just lazy, with reporting so we don't don't know how many doses have actually been given and Gov. Hogan has only recently decided to demand that hospitals etc. report what have been administered and threatened to withhold more doses to those who are under performing, but not sure how he will do that.
There are also those health care workers who are refusing vaccines, a few outright and the rest, it seems, want a wait and see. Absurd! Their job is to help keep others alive and comfortable and yet some, perhaps as much as 45%, are waiting to see how others react to vaccine before they get the shot themselves? Okay, that is their right to do so... but Maryland should be moving into the next phase instead of waiting on healthcare workers, first responders, etc. to make a decision. If they are not jumping at the chance to get the vaccine, they have already made their decision. The vaccine will still be available to them in the other phases, so let's get on with it.
In my opinion, there should just be a lottery system. When your number comes up, you accept or decline. Once we have gone through the population the vaccine opens up to everyone.
I am also not sure if I am in Phase 2 or Phase 3. Then again, a health condition might put me in Phase 1C. My wife is a lab scientist at a hospital and even she doesn't know what is going on.
Why? I mean 'Florida' didn't seem to mind the virus in the first place.
Ask your acquaintance who came up with the idea to call the groups 1A, 1B, and 1C, instead of numbering them 1,2,3,4,5. Do they really think we are that stupid that we would feel better being in a 1 category? That alone pisses me off to no end.
I am going to have to check out whether or not you have to be a Florida Resident. I have friends in The Villages.
Hogan will get a lot fewer votes from people over 65 at this point in time, if he ever runs for any office in the future, because of this.
I doubt they did it to appease people (it likely has more to do with production/distribution). You choosing to get angry over this is really on you. But at the end of the day - does it really matter what label they apply?
Like just about everything in life, there isn't a way to do this to satisfy everyone. The bottom line is that there simply isn't enough supply right now to administer it to everyone. Albeit some will argue that logistics is the bigger issue. I have a few friends who aren't in phase I but got vaccinated because a clinic nearby had cancellations and had to either administer it to whoever they can, or waste it.
If you're still heated about where all this came from - perhaps this CDC deck can give you some info:
State and hospital officials offered myriad explanations for the slow start to COVID-19 vaccinations in Maryland, but the effort is drawing questions and concerns for a program that eventually needs to inoculate millions of residents.
Officials said there were holiday interruptions, complex distribution issues and a purposeful staggering of the shots that could cause adverse reactions. Delayed reporting by contractors also has been a problem. Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan plans to address the matter further during a news conference Tuesday.
But lawmakers and observers said more information is needed to identify issues hampering the process of quickly distributing doses to top priority groups in hospitals and nursing homes, other groups at risk of infection from the coronavirus and eventually the general public.
“It’s a very complex issue, and it’s not about blame but figuring out where the barriers are so we know how to address them,” said Dr. Leana Wen, a former Baltimore health commissioner and a professor of public health at George Washington University.
She said the state needs substantial and dedicated staffing to lead the effort, with real-time tracking of vaccines so officials know where the doses are in the system and where more resources are needed.
Maryland is not alone in facing challenges to its two-week-old vaccination program, with New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo even threatening to fine hospitals that don’t use doses quickly enough. But state lawmakers chafed at news last week that a Bloomberg News analysis found Maryland to be the slowest state to use its vaccine.
The state appears to be closing the gap, according to an official tally by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As of Saturday, Maryland had used almost 60,000 doses, or just under 29% of its federal vaccine allotment. Nationally, the CDC reported that about a third of the 13 million doses delivered had been administered.
But, the CDC data also shows Maryland has vaccinated about 991 people out of every 100,000, ahead of just eight states. Each will require a second dose.
Absent an overarching federal program, observers and critics say it’s important to have strong local leadership and the ability to quickly identify hitches in the system to ensure vaccine doses are not wasted.
State Sen. Paul Pinsky said lawmakers, like the general public, have been left in the dark about what the hold-ups are with vaccine distribution.
As rollout falters, scientists debate new vaccination tactics »
”Everybody is concerned. We should be in the forefront, not bringing up the rear,” said Pinsky, a Prince George’s Democrat who chairs one of the Senate committees that handles health issues.
Borrowing Hogan’s exhortation to “wear the damn mask,” Pinsky said: “Distribute the damn vaccines.”
The Hogan administration should communicate what the challenges are and set clear expectations for state residents, Pinsky said.
”What are the roadblocks? Is it transportation? Is it a database? Is it stuck in a warehouse? Do they not have enough syringes?” Pinsky said. “You hear all this fuzziness around it, this ephemeral stuff, but you don’t hear details.”
In a statement Monday, Maryland Democratic Party Chair Yvette Lewis called the state’s status as one of the worst states for vaccine distribution “nothing short of a failure.”
Mike Ricci, a spokesman for Hogan, said the Republican governor warned the launch would be slow after the federal government “was setting all kinds of expectations” about the vaccine rollout.
“Go point by point, and our phase 1A plan has hit all of its markers, beginning at hospitals on Dec. 14, nursing homes before Christmas and for first responders last week,” he said. “We will continue to push providers to get shots into arms as safely and quickly as possible.”
Del. Shane Pendergrass, who chairs the House of Delegates’ Health and Government Operations Committee, said one problem at key distribution points could local health departments that may be understaffed and underfunded.
”I think they are working short-handed and they are working with a bigger job now,” said Pendergrass, a Howard County Democrat. “Even in normal times they would be light-staffed and this is not the best of times. This is the worst of times we’ve seen in my lifetime. This is really a problem.”
Pendergrass and Del. Sandy Rosenberg of Baltimore, also a Democrat, wrote to state health officials to ask for more information on the vaccine rollout. The response they received Monday afternoon was light on details, Pendergrass said.
The letter from Acting Health Secretary Dennis Schrader said Maryland officials are working to get the initial federal allocation of 273,875 doses out to hospitals, nursing homes and first responders. Schrader wrote that the state would provide weekly updates to the public on the vaccination plans.
Pendergrass said it’s important to get more information out to the public, and she’s planning to call health officials in for a briefing before lawmakers.
”We want people to get vaccinated. I’m sure the governor wants people to get vaccinated,” she said. “But you have to translate how you get from here to there and we need to do that quickly.”
Ricci said the state plans to launch a “full public education campaign” later this month, closer to the start of the next phase of distribution. After hospital workers, nursing home residents and staff, and first responders, the state plans to vaccinate other front-line health workers, those over age 75 and those with certain underlying health conditions.
General vaccination programs aren’t expected until later in the spring or summer. There will be a method to sign up, though that is not yet available, plus tracking and reminders for people to get second doses.
The state’s counties and Baltimore City appear to have some leeway in distribution, as well as accounting for doses. Baltimore County’s health department announced Monday that it would launch a health care provider registry to make it easier to distribute information on scheduling vaccination appointments for staff. The county got its first shipment of 100 doses Dec. 30 and officials said they already used them all on first responders and front-line health care workers.
Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott, a Democrat, plans his own news conference Tuesday to discuss the city’s distribution and prioritization plan.
Bob Atlas, president and CEO of the Maryland Hospital Association, said he expected the number of people vaccinated to rise considerably this week.
He called the vaccination rollout “a considerable accomplishment in very short order, considering that our hospitals have very high patient care demands — COVID and otherwise — and that it happened during the holiday period.”
Atlas said the first shipment of vaccines came to Maryland the week of Dec. 14, and half went to hospitals and half to nursing homes. Half of the hospitals didn’t receive any doses because the Pfizer vaccine, which requires extremely cold temperature storage, couldn’t be split into small batches. The second shipment, which also included Moderna vaccine, arrived just ahead of Christmas and the hospitals “were unable to schedule large numbers of staff to be vaccinated.”
Then, Atlas said, the hospitals had to stagger vaccinations in case of bad reactions. The hospitals also needed to pull staff from other areas to administer the doses to colleagues.
“Now that the holidays have passed and supplies of vaccines are flowing somewhat reliably, Maryland hospitals are better able to vaccinate their workforces and affiliated providers at a much greater pace,” Atlas said. “The numbers will rise markedly this week.”
Baltimore Sun reporter Hallie Miller contributed to this article.
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