Many workers at a hospital in Rio Grande Valley, Texas, have rejected the new COVID-19 vaccine that is being given to other medical personnel in the area through the facility. Many showed up, but state legislators, police officers and deputy sheriffs who were not on the state’s priority list for vaccinations did.
Hospitals across Texas began receiving the first batch of Pfizer Covid-19 vaccines over the past several days. Doctors Hospital at Renaissance in Edinburgh, one of the most Texas facilities most affected by the virus this year, has received 5,850 doses of the vaccine.
State guidelines say these early bhes should go to chess front-line health care workers. But how the actual distribution works varies from facility to facility, as each interprets those state recommendations.
Dr. H. Robert Martinez, DHR’s chief medical officer, said hospital officials preferred employees considered in the first phase for dosage, such as hospital staff who work directly with CVD-19 patients and long-term care workers. Martinez said administrators realized that not enough people qualified for the vaccine were initially choosing to receive it.
“You start seeing all this distrust and misinformation the same numbers across the country,” he said.
Initially, about 40% to 60% of people who responded to a hospital survey said they would get the vaccine, Martinez said. Lower-than-expected vaccine adoption rates were first reported by the monitor.
D.H.R. Health does not want to spend a dose of health vaccine. After the first day of delivery, the hospital “started going down the steps … a little down the stairs,” Martinez said. And in neighboring cities and counties in the valley – anyone with workers on the front lines of COVID-19.
The Rio Grande Valley is made up of Cameron, Hidalgo, Star and Villesey County. Since the epidemic began, more than 68,000 people, mainly from the Hispanic region, have tested positive for coronavirus.
“I’m more excited as far as I’m concerned,” said Martinez, who insisted, “it wasn’t free for everyone.” He said he and other staff members asked medical staff if they could bring relatives to do so.
A photojournalist working for the Texas Tribune snapped a photo of several people in Edinburgh on Saturday seeking or getting vaccinated. One person was State Sen. Eddie Lucio Jr., who is also a member of the state’s COVID-19 expert vaccine allocation panel that recommends to the state health commissioner on which groups should be given priority for vaccination.
Legislators are not eligible for the first round of vaccinations unless they are health care workers, said Chris Van Dussen, a spokesman for the Texas State Health Services Department. Lucio, a Democrat whose district includes the southeastern part of the valley, is not a health care worker. In a statement Monday, Lucio said he has been invited by the DCR to take the vaccine, while explaining to him that all eligible workers who want the vaccine have received it – and will have to administer or destroy the surplus.
“I find it shocking that there is a growing concern over the Covid-19 vaccine. I believe this is key for our state to significantly reduce the number of infections and deaths, and I hope that by showing everyone that there is nothing to fear, I can help set the tone for vaccination so that more taxis will accept it. As soon as it becomes available, ”Lucio said.
The legislator also noted that since he is over 65, he is in the next phase, which health officials said will be the next line for the vaccine.
However, state health officials said Monday that Texas is weeks away from transitioning to the next phase of vaccine distribution for people over the age of 65. Lucio declined to comment on the matter, saying he knows people who have the virus. DHR did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The photojournalist also spoke with a man who identified himself as a deputy of the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office. Law enforcement personnel are not prepared to be vaccinated by the first tier of DSHS.
A spokesman for the Hidalgo County Sheriff’s Office did not return a call for comment. Martinez said he is not aware of any specialties but law enforcement sometimes helps hospital workers.
Van Dussen said in an email that vaccine providers should “adhere to the priorities set by the expert vaccine allocation panel and the DSHS.” In this first phase of delivery, “the priority is to vaccinate residents of long-term care facilities and front-line health care workers who have direct interaction with patients.”
The vaccine is not reserved for a single vaccine provider’s staff, Van Dussein wrote. “We encourage providers … to help other health care workers in their community get vaccinated.”
Among those receiving the vaccine this weekend was Rio Grande Valley pharmacist Danny Vella, who received a phone call Saturday from someone he knew at Renaissance Doctors Hospital. Vela is not an employee of the hospital, but was told he could get a dose of the vaccine if he wanted to.
So Vela, the pharmacist and co-owner of Lee’s Pharmacy in the Valley, and his daughter, Lee’s Pharmacy Technician, walked from the hospital to the street-side conference center, where a large vaccination operation was underway in the lobby. Two hours later, both father and daughter received the dose.
Vella, he said, felt “lucky and relieved.”
“Make sure everyone understands the priorities at the moment and what the responsibilities are,” Van Dussen said. DSHS will comply if concerns are raised about who gets the vaccine.
It will be months before the vaccine becomes widely available for most Texans. Health officials said people should continue to wear masks, wash their hands frequently and practice social distance. They also say that vaccinated people can still carry and spread the virus.
Thousands have been vaccinated nationally since last week. But there have been some hiccups. Stanford Medicine residents who work in close contact with COVID-19 patients were spared the first wave of staff members for the Pfizer vaccine. He was replaced by high-ranking doctors who reduce the patient’s risk of infection, Propblica reported last week. The hospital apologized and promised to do better.
D.H.R. Health handed over its last dose on Sunday afternoon, Martinez said. With each new vaccine shipment its priority, it can be any front-line, D.H.R. Health will have to be given to medical workers who did not get it the first time. But he won’t have to wait any longer before he gets to the guy in the line.
He said, “Every day I store that vaccine in the freezer is another person, or some other person who dies.”
