Over 70 and waiting. KY faces huge demand for COVID-19 vaccine with little supply.
Pat Willett’s legs gave out after standing in line for more than two hours, and he collapsed.
Someone brought him a wheelchair, where the 76-year-old sat for another five hours, waiting for his first dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Willett, of Georgetown, made it to the front of the line that snaked around the Lexington Veterans Affairs Medical Center on January 16 just before 4 p.m., after more than seven hours of waiting. But he was turned away, he said, for lack of proper paperwork.
Even though he carries the “veteran” label on his Driver’s License for serving in the Marine Corps during the Vietnam War, he hadn’t brought with him the form verifying his active service. He could return the following day with the right paper, but he would have to stand in line again.
Frustrated at the miscommunication and what seemed to him, mismanagement in dealing with such a high volume of veterans wanting a vaccine, he left.
“They probably did the best they could, but they just weren’t prepared to handle that many people,” Willett said Tuesday. He was given the option of returning with the required form on Sunday, but Willett and his wife decided against it. “I was afraid of getting stuck in that line again,” he said.
A tidal wave of demand
Willett was one of thousands that flocked to the Lexington VA last weekend for its initial first-come, first-served vaccine clinic for veterans age 50 and older. Patrick Sinclair, a voluntary service officer at the VA, called the walk-in clinic a “success,” and one that yielded an “overwhelming response.” Approximately 4,000 doses were administered, but more than 4,000 veterans attempted to get the vaccine. Sinclair, though, didn’t know how many were turned away or left on their own.
As hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians clamor for their first dose, clinics like these, managed by the federal government, are intended to supplement the state’s scramble to push out its own limited supply of coronavirus vaccine, which is apportioned by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and shipped weekly to the state. Those who qualify in 1A (health care personnel, long-term care residents and staff) and 1B (K-12 personnel, first responders, people age 70 and older) are eligible for a vaccine in Kentucky, though availability varies county to county.
But no matter who’s managing the rollout of those doses, people who want a COVID-19 vaccine are bumping up against the same reality: Kentucky has a perpetually insufficient stock of doses in the face of staggering demand. The state’s Public Health Commissioner Steven Stack earlier this week called the current scenario a “market dysfunction.”
Gov. Andy Beshear on Thursday said the state’s ability to “vaccinate faster is all going to come down to supply,” but the supply just isn’t there. Next week, the state expects to receive roughly 57,000 doses earmarked for people (except long-term care facility residents and staff) in the state’s priority groups known as 1A and 1B — far fewer than the nearly 86,400 shots administered across Kentucky this week.
This is a challenge for vaccinators, too, Stack said.
“Places that want to vaccinate don’t know if they’ll be able to get vaccine, if they’ll get it, how much they’ll get it and if they’ll get it regularly,” which makes it hard to plan ahead, he said.
It’s not clear when the state’s level of supply and demand might even out. Beshear asked the federal government on Tuesday to “immediately double the allocation” of doses it’s shipping to Kentucky, but he hasn’t received a response. He cited President Joe Biden’s pledge to release all state’s vaccine allotments in one fell swoop as another potential solution, but a limit in manufacturing capacity may realistically delay that possibility until the spring.
This volume uncertainty, coupled with the tidal wave of demand state agencies are drowning in, is likely to get worse in two weeks, when close to one million additional Kentuckians in 1C, including essential workers, will qualify for a first dose. To accommodate this much larger group, the state will open a series of regional high-volume drive-thru vaccination sites during the first week of February.
Whether the state will actually possess a robust enough stock to actually begin vaccinating those in 1C remains to be seen, especially considering the biggest population in 1B — people ages 70 and older — won’t have reliable access to a vaccine until February.
“Our focus during the month of February will be reaching folks 70 and older,” Stack promised on Tuesday. “Please know that is our next priority.”
‘A lot of frustration’
By the first week in February, Beshear said he expects to have all 85,000 of the state’s K-12 personnel immunized, as well as most first responders. In order to achieve that goal, fueled by a drive to return to in-person learning, K-12 personnel are currently being prioritized over people age 70 and older.
The University of Kentucky is the biggest provider of vaccines in Lexington, giving as many as 2,000 shots a day, and the lion’s share of their doses are currently going to teachers, most of whom haven’t taught students in person since March. The first night UK opened its registration, more than 50,000 people signed up, a university official said earlier this week.
The first batch of 10,000 people they vaccinated at Kroger Field broke down like this: 8,000 were K-12 personnel, about 1,500 were remaining health care workers in 1A, and 1,000 were people over 70 with health issues, said Dr. Ashley Montgomery-Yates, assistant chief medical officer at UK HealthCare.
District-wide immunizations among personnel in Jefferson County Public Schools, Kentucky’s largest school district, began on Friday. State officials have said they hope to finish inoculating teachers and school staff by the end of the first week in February, in just two weeks.
To compound matters, the lack of a centralized vaccine registration system is making the rollout more complicated for many, especially older Kentuckians, who aren’t sure where to sign up, or who may not have internet access.
“A lot of the frustration that’s happening is because people who want to get vaccinated don’t know where to go get it, [or] don’t know where to sign up, even, to wait,” Stack said this week.
John and Carole Cole of Jessamine County, both in their late 70s, have tried repeatedly to sign up for a vaccine through the Baptist Health system — one of a handful of locations offering a limited supply of doses to those in the state’s eligible priority groups.
Unsurprisingly, appointments are going fast (as of Friday morning, all of Baptist Health Lexington’s slots were booked.)
The Coles check the appointment page like clockwork in the mornings and in the afternoons for any openings. John, who spoke to the Herald-Leader on Wednesday, estimated they’ve refreshed the page more than 20 times in the last two days. Carole seemed to have secured a reservation at one point, before getting booted from the system.
This week, both the Coles and the Willetts registered for a vaccine through UK.
“You’re just registering to be contacted when they do have open slots, [while knowing] you may have to come up to that [supply limit] 95 times before your ball gets picked,” John Cole said.
This story was originally published January 22, 2021 at 4:07 PM.
