‘It should be faster.’ NC plans mass COVID vaccine distribution sites as many wait
Less than a month after her husband died, Pam Wilkie received her first dose of a vaccine that will protect her from the virus that killed him.
Tuesday morning, Wilkie sat behind West Johnston High School, her car idling in a line of others carrying people who had received the vaccine, waiting a few minutes in the rare event that any of them had a serious reaction. Wilkie’s left arm, where she had taken the shot, was still out of her jacket.
“Everybody should get the COVID shot. If it had just been a little sooner ...” Wilkie said, her voice trailing off as her thoughts turned back to her husband.
Bruce Wilkie died Dec. 14, the same day the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine were administered in North Carolina. Pam said they followed every order and were taking precautions. Then Bruce got sick. He was dead two weeks later.
“I think about him every day,” Wilkie said. “He’d be wanting me to do this.”
As North Carolina health departments and hospitals slowly enter Phase 1b, Group 1 of the vaccination process for people 75 years and older, questions abound about when and where the vacccine will be given. When vaccine is available, appointment slots fill up quickly, whether they are online, like in Orange County, or in-person like in Johnston County.
Tuesday morning’s event marked the first time the Johnston County Health Department made vaccine available to people 75 and older. By 9 a.m., health officials had closed the gates to the vaccine site — more than an hour before the scheduled 10 a.m. start. By then, 500 people who got to the site in the early morning hours already had staked their spots in line for the available vaccine doses. Others were turned away.
Gov. Roy Cooper and Dr. Mandy Cohen, Secretary of the N.C. Department of Health and Human Services, said at a Tuesday news conference that they’re working with health departments and hospitals to open mass vaccination sites and have identified hundreds of state staff who could be sent to help local agencies with the vaccine effort.
Regina Sanders came to Tuesday’s vaccine event with her aunt and a friend, all three of them eligible for a shot. They arrived about 8 a.m. and received the vaccine around 11 a.m.
Sanders said she thinks everyone should get the vaccine, but that she is concerned about the rollout, a process that has drawn criticism both nationally and in North Carolina. Some have said the vaccine isn’t being administered fast enough, with appointments snapped up almost as soon as they are posted and some people waiting for hours to receive a vaccine.
“It should be faster,” Sanders said of the rollout.
‘A sense of urgency’
Cooper has called the vaccine rollout his administration’s “top priority,” even as legislative Republicans have criticized him and the process. The state’s vaccine plan was a key topic of a meeting of the Joint Legislative Oversight Committee on Medicaid and N.C. Health Choice on Tuesday.
During that hearing, Cohen said some local providers have been slower to provide vaccine than others, but that there has been a 113% increase over the past week.
“I know we all feel a sense of urgency to get out this vaccine quickly,” Cohen said. “I can report that we are getting much faster.”
She added that some slower providers worry they won’t receive shipments of the second vaccine doses that are necessary for maximum protection against COVID-19, The News & Observer reported.
Committee chair Sen. Joyce Krawiec, in an interview following the committee meeting, said Cohen acknowledged some of the problems with the vaccination rollout but avoided directly answering some legislators’ questions about the process.
Krawiec, a Kernersville Republican, said the legislature doesn’t currently have plans to take up any vaccine-related legislation, but legislators will continue making recommendations “to let them know we expect better from you, and we expect you to pick up the ball and deliver those vaccinations into people’s arms.”
“We’re going to hold their feet to the fire to see that the vaccinations are put in people’s arms in a timely fashion,” Krawiec said. “If things don’t get better, I would expect that my colleagues will be clamoring for us to do something.”
Cohen said at Tuesday’s news conference that the state is working to set up 10 mass vaccination sites across the state that could ultimately lead to about 45,000 additional vaccinations per week, on top of those already being administered by health departments and hospitals.
North Carolina is building up a supply of about 45,000 vaccine doses for the so-called “high throughput sites” by not sending additional doses to providers who had large amounts left over from previous weeks, Cohen said.
“By not allocating certain folks additional vaccine while they used up their backlog, we were able to accumulate enough to put towards these high throughput sites,” Cohen said, adding that other providers have declined additional vaccine.
State health officials are calling every health department in North Carolina to see what kind of help they need to push vaccine out, Cohen said.
“We’re actually going one-by-one, calling them, asking them, ‘How can we help you be successful with getting all the vaccine you have out within the next week?’” Cohen said.
Cohen also said the state selected providers for mass vaccination sites by asking how much they could scale up in the next week, ultimately choosing 10 sites. The health secretary did not provide specifics, but said locations will include the Triangle, the Asheville area, Charlotte, Eastern North Carolina and the Triad.
Johnston County has scheduled another drive-thru clinic Thursday, Jan. 14, at North Johnston High in Kenly from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., or until supplies last.
Hard to find information
Paul Pierce, of Wake Forest, said he couldn’t find information about where to get a vaccine. He started with several Google searches and watched Cooper’s press conferences.
“I looked through them for some specific information. I couldn’t find any,” Pierce, who is 75, told The News & Observer. “Helpful information, but not specific to an individual. How does an individual get a shot?”
Then he waited a few more days and looked again, hoping officials would have unveiled detailed specifics. They hadn’t. Pierce was anxious to get a shot because he has plans to fly to Taiwan in early February to join his wife, who has been there since last July. He wanted to receive the vaccine before taking the trans-Pacific flight.
“I only knew that (vaccinations were) happening, but there was no specific information as to how it was actually going to be executed,” Pierce said.
N.C. DHHS has a website at covid19.ncdhhs.gov/findyourspot with a list of locations and phone numbers. It also launched a COVID-19 phone line at 877-490-6642 to answer questions, though not to make appointments.
In Wake County, where Pierce lives, health officials recently announced that they will launch a special website and phone line Jan. 19, where people who are eligible to receive the vaccine can make appointments.
As Pierce was waiting for more details, though, he received a message through his Duke Health account informing him that he could get the vaccine. Tuesday, he drove to Durham and was given a shot of the Pfizer vaccine.
“It was good that I got it,” Pierce said, “but I think a little bit of general notification to people would be helpful.”
‘Very streamlined’ in Johnston County
When someone drove up to West Johnston High School on Tuesday, they had to show a form of identification to prove they were at least 75 years old. Like being carded at a nightclub, they received a wristband to confirm their ID had been checked.
As people sat in their cars in the parking lot, some stepped out to stretch their legs while others ambled toward the high school in search of a restroom. Many of them rode back on a utility vehicle driven by a county staff member.
Eventually, a Johnston County Sheriff’s Department deputy led a line of cars out of the parking lot, looping them from around one side of the high school. There, a volunteer checked to make sure people in the car wore their wristbands and they met the age requirement to receive the vaccine.
The line of cars crawled forward, splitting into two before passing a group of volunteers and health department officials who helped recipients fill out pink intake forms.
Then the cars pulled forward, until they stopped underneath two blue tents where the shots were actually administered through cracked windows and open doors.
After someone received the shot, he or she pulled into one of two waiting lines, where they were held for a short period before being sent on their way.
Pam Wilkie said she got into line about 7:30 a.m. A health worker leaned into her car and gave her the shot a few minutes after 11 a.m.
“It’s very organized, it was very streamlined,” Wilkie said. “It didn’t take as long as I thought it would.”
Danielle Battaglia and Lucille Sherman contributed to this story.
How to get information on vaccine distribution in NC
N.C. DHHS has a website at covid19.ncdhhs.gov/findyourspot with a list of locations and phone numbers. You can also call 877-490-6642 with questions, though not to make appointments.
This story was originally published January 12, 2021 at 8:08 PM with the headline "‘It should be faster.’ NC plans mass COVID vaccine distribution sites as many wait."