PROVIDENCE – As the state begins to speed up allocation of COVID-19 vaccines to Rhode Islanders aged 75 and older, physicians advising the R.I. Department of Health on Friday said they were concerned that the state, which does not have a central registry for appointments, is encouraging people to schedule multiple appointments.
The state plans three major avenues through which people can schedule a vaccine. The first, which started last week with limited doses, is through town and city registries, each of which is handling it differently. The second is through retail pharmacies, including CVS Pharmacy and Walgreen’s, where vaccinations for people 75 and up will begin next week.
And finally, by mid-February, the state expects to open state-run vaccine centers which will have a first-come, first-served process for appointments.
Dr. Pablo Rodriguez, medical director of community affairs for Care New England, said he knew for a fact that people were already signing up in more than one location for vaccines. “Because they want to make sure they game the system to get the vaccine the fastest. We don’t have any way, a central registry of any kind. My concern for that is wasted vaccine. If they don’t cancel it, we could have a number of vaccines that go bad.”
McKenzie Morton, the facilitator for the COVID-19 Vaccine Sub-committee, pointed out that all of the pharmacy and vaccination partners have waiting lists, which could be employed if someone did not show up for a vaccination.
“If there are remaining doses at the end of the night,” she said. “It’s not going to be perfect, but each of the partners has a good plan in place to do the best they can.”
Dr. Christopher Ottiano, interim medical director of Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island, echoed the concern, particularly if the state is messaging that multiple appointments are needed. “From what I heard on the media this morning it is being encouraged,” he said.
Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, director of the R.I. Department of Health, clarified what she had said in the Thursday briefing on the COVID-19 response.
The state remains focused on equitable distribution of the vaccine, she said, through multiple channels. People should know if they have been vaccinated or not, she said, and should cancel an appointment if they have already received their shot. Some of the local and regional vaccine sites are registries, and some of them are for information.
Operationally, the state is going to have to try to address the concerns raised by the physicians, she said.
“The message yesterday was we will have three routes, and here’s where, and how you will gain access,” she said. “It does involve having to balance that against the notion of people making multiple appointments and working with the pharmacies that we will be partnering with to coordinate better. We can certainly do the coordination on the state and regional/local side but we will continue to need to focus in on how to ensure there are no vaccines that go to waste.”
Several members of the vaccine subcommittee told Alexander-Scott that they remain concerned that despite the commitment to equitable distribution, the proportion of vaccines taken so far by ethnic or racial minorities remains relatively low. These populations have been hardest hit, proportionately, in hospitalizations and deaths due to COVID-19.
“Even with our efforts, that percentage is woefully inadequate compared to the numbers of people who affected in communities of color,” Rodriguez said.
Fifty-six percent of first doses for the vaccine have gone to white Rhode Islanders, according to statistics as of Jan. 24 reported to the R.I. Department of Health. Only 3% have been taken by African-Americans. Another 6% of vaccine recipients identified as Hispanic or Latino. About 27% are unclassified by race or ethnicity.
Dr. Wilfredo Giordano-Perez, a primary care physician with Tri-County Community Action Agency, told the committee that people who have the means, through a computer, to access appointments will do so. He said that last weekend, a community health vaccination clinic at Providence Community Health Centers had 900 openings.
More than half of the appointments were taken up by residents of the East Side of Providence.
“It was an example … that we really focused on speed in doing that. And in doing that, the equity piece really got lost,” Giordano-Perez said. “The people who can most quickly access the internet and access that vaccine did so and they did so rapidly, to the point where more than 50 percent of those vaccines went to individuals who they weren’t necessarily targeted for.”
In other news:
- The state will start the final population in phase one, funeral industry workers, on Monday. All other populations in that phase, including people aged 75 and older, are continuing.
- Central Falls, a special focus for the state, has had 7,540 first doses allocated as of Feb. 1. Community partners have assisted with outreach.
- Rhode Island will start to have incremental increases in the flow of the COVID-19 vaccines from the federal government. Next week, the state expects to receive 16,000 doses, an increase from the 14,000 it has been receiving since December. By Feb. 21, the state expects an allocation of 19,000 doses, which would arrive the following week, Alexander-Scott said.
- Alexander-Scott emphasized that the COVID-19 subcommittee is going to continue its work through the incoming administration of Lt. Gov. Dan McKee, who announced his own vaccine advisory panel to guide him through the transition. That panel, Alexander-Scott said, would be tasked with advising him on community needs through the transition. At this point, it is unclear when McKee will take office, as Gov. Gina M. Raimondo has not received Senate confirmation as U.S. Commerce Secretary.
Mary MacDonald is a staff writer for the PBN. Contact her at macdonald@pbn.com.
