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The czar of West Virginia's much-lauded COVID-19 vaccination effort isn't interested in keeping his formula for success to himself, based on testimony Tuesday in a hearing of the U.S. House Committee on Energy and Commerce.
Among recommendations made by Dr. Clay Marsh was the creation of a "portal" for best practices, so that all the states can check out what others are doing in the distribution and administration of coronavirus vaccines and adopt whatever might work for them.
Adaptability is one of the characteristics of his own state's effort, according to information Marsh provided during the hearing, when he was called upon repeatedly by lawmakers, including Dr. John Joyce, a Blair County Republican.
"We are constantly iterating our approach," Marsh said.
The West Virginia approach is "agile," responsive, "scrappy" and resilient, Marsh said.
"Top down meets bottom up," he stated.
It's one that values control, while inviting creativity, one where good ideas are shared, learning is quick and communication is clear, according to Marsh, whose state is first in the proportion of population that has received two doses, second in percentage of population that has received at least one dose and second in percentage of supply administered.
The approach is also apolitical, Marsh said, during a hearing in which many representatives sought to emphasize either the virtues of their party's efforts during the pandemic or the failures of the other party's approach.
The state set clear priorities from the get-go, Marsh said.
It made a common-sense decision to stress protection for the most vulnerable population -- the elderly, who, depending on the age cohort, are orders of magnitude likelier to grow severely sick and to die.
Those between 50 and 65, for example, are 30 times more likely to die than people in their prime, while half the state's COVID-19 deaths have been in nursing homes, according to Marsh.
To reach that most vulnerable group within that vulnerable group most quickly, the state spurned the federal partnership with CVS and Walgreens pharmacies in favor of a customized partnership between its widely dispersed pharmacy network and its similarly dispersed long-term facility network -- on the advise of the associations representing those facilities and those pharmacies, Marsh said.
It was a plan that fit the state's rural profile, he said.
To ensure the group with the most expertise in logistics was handling the complex logistics of the vaccination distribution and administration effort, the state summoned its National Guard, he said.
To ensure that it adjusted to account for the special problems of another group shown to be especially vulnerable to COVID-19 -- people of color -- West Virginia created a task force comprising professionals and faith leaders who could persuade people who are often hesitant to be vaccinated due to the dismal history of infamous experiments like those conducted on the black Tuskegee airmen generations ago.
To ensure that doses got to where they needed expeditiously, the state created five distribution hubs, using GPS to track shipments, Marsh said.
To ensure that providers got those doses administered quickly, doses that were still in bottles seven days later were returned to the hubs for reallocation, he said.
The state got its messages out via the internet and TV, and it created a call center.
There were frequent public briefings.
As with other states, West Virginia's capacity for vaccinations is greater than the doses it receives from the federal government, Marsh said.
The state gets around 23,000 doses weekly, but could handle 125,000 -- and it's hoping to gear up for more.
To ensure it's ready, it has been "vaccinating the vaccinators," including a group of students, he said.
The state's success needs to be replicated, according to Joyce, R-13th District.
"We made a plan that works for us," Marsh said.
Mirror Staff Writer William Kibler is at 814-949-7038.