State aims to increase vaccine sites

Patience urged; as supply grows, more clinics set to open

As more COVID-19 vaccines become available, and as long-term care facility staff and residents receive shots, the state will be looking toward regular pharmacy locations and community clinics to get the bulk of the population vaccinated, according to Blair County Emergency Management Director Mark Taylor, speaking to the Local Emergency Planning Committee on Thursday, and information provided in a joint State Senate committee hearing.

For now, people who are 65 and older, or 16 to 64 with health conditions that qualify them for a shot, should keep in touch with their primary care doctors and pharmacies and monitor the state Department of Health website, according to Taylor.

"I know there are struggles," Taylor said.

Those who have been successful getting an appointment for a vaccination so far tend to be the ones who "keep bugging" pharmacies until they break through, Taylor said.

Otherwise, people need to be patient, Taylor said.

The recommended portal for getting the contact information needed to make an appointment remains the interactive vaccination map on the DoH website, which has buttons for providers who have enrolled with the state, green for those who've been "activated" and red for those still waiting, according to information provided at the hearing.

Locally, individuals can keep abreast of developments by signing up for the Smart911 national safety profile registry, which will allow them to receive alerts to vaccination opportunities and other matters and which also provides responders with geographical and health information that would help them help the individual in an emergency -- including health conditions that make them vulnerable to COVID-19, according to Taylor. To sign up, visit www.smart911.com or download the Smart911 app in the Apple Store or Google Play.

For more information or assistance, email Cris Fredrickson at cfredrickson@blairco.org.

People can also call the DoH's toll free number, 1-877-PA-HEALTH (1-877-724-3258) for website guidance, according to DOH officials, speaking at the hearing.

Those who don't have a computer or smartphone can get help from relatives or neighbors, in many cases, according to testimony at the hearing.

"Neighbors helping neighbors," Taylor said.

Vaccination misinformation has been rife, according to Taylor.

In many cases, it has been the outcome of "false expectations" created by the federal government when, based on its guidance, Phase 1A in Pennsylvania expanded by 3.5 million people on Jan. 19, with the addition of everyone 65 and up and 16 to 64 with health conditions that make them vulnerable, Taylor said.

"They had everybody under the impression that (their vaccinations) would happen right away," Taylor said. "As we have seen, that has not been the case."

The biggest problem for now is the shortage of doses coming into the state, although the federal government has been working to increase manufacturing capacity.

Pfizer and Moderna, makers of the two authorized vaccines, increased their output by about 20% in the last few weeks, according to the Biden administration, as reported in the New York Times.

Moderna has also asked permission to add more doses to the vials it uses, as a workaround to a manufacturing choke point problem, according to the Times.

In addition, at the state and local levels, progress in the vaccination effort will free more vaccines for wider distribution of shots in 1A and eventually subsequent categories, according to Taylor and others.

At the state level, that includes progress in a federal partnership with CVS and Walgreens to vaccinate residents and staff in long-term care facilities, according to Taylor and Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam, speaking to lawmakers this week.

At the local level, it includes progress in local hospitals' vaccination of health-care workers -- their own employees and others who are unaffiliated.

As of Thursday, there were 270 health workers left to be vaccinated in Blair, and those should be taken care of in a week or two, according to Taylor.

Taylor is working with local hospitals on preparations for small community clinics, he said.

His office is also planning a mass vaccination clinic at the Blair County Convention Center, when more doses are available.

That plan is under review by the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency and the DoH, Taylor said.

There will be a need for volunteers for those clinics, but that has been a struggle, according to Taylor.

One obstacle is Blair County's requirement that all volunteers be drug tested, he said.

Some potential volunteers can't afford the cost, he said.

The federal government is also planning to begin distributing doses to regular pharmacy locations, in hopes of making vaccinations more widely available to people who live near a drugstore but not a mass vaccination clinic site or doctor's office and more appealing to people who may be uncomfortable going to those alternative locations, but not to the pharmacy on the corner, according to Taylor and experts at the hearing.

"That's where we'll unlock our true potential," said Dillon Rybka, a district leader for the CVS-Federal Pharmacy Partnership.

CVS has the capacity to vaccinate 25 million people per month across the country, Rybka said.

The firm is looking forward to discussing how the program would look in Pennsylvania, he said.

Rite Aid, too, plans to participate, according to Chris Altman, manager of clinical and immunization programs for the company.

Already, 176 Rite Aid stores in the state are vaccinating, and a total of 520 would be available to do it eventually, Altman said.