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Officials in Williamson County decide to delay vaccine distribution
The decision to wait until after Christmas brought a quick reaction from the top health officials in Texas.
GEORGETOWN, Texas - The Cedar Park Regional Medical Center is scheduled to get almost a thousand doses of Moderna COVID 19 vaccine on Monday. The shots will continue the process for frontline medical workers, which started last week with the Pfizer vaccine.
Monday will be a big day according to County Judge Bill Gravell. "It’s not just 900 vaccines for paramedics and firefighters, it's 900 vaccines for 900 families," he said.
Williamson County paramedics have been hit hard by COVID 19. Earlier in the year, so many were exposed to the virus a plan for replacement crews was needed.
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"Some of them have been sleeping in their own garage at night when they have gone home because they were afraid of taking COVID inside," said Gravell.
Unfortunately, there will be a few more of those nights. That’s because the boxes of vaccines, which were sent to Williamson County, have not been delivered to the Family Emergency Room clinic on Whitestone Boulevard where Williamson County paramedics are to get their shots.
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"We received the vaccine yesterday at 11 am, and the thought we are waiting 3 days to start that, it hurts my heart. We've got paramedics who are not taking 3-day breaks, we've got firefighters that are not taking 3-day breaks, we could have brought some Christmas joy yesterday, if we have been prepared and we were not there," said Gravell.
COVID-19 vaccine is controlled by the Williamson County and Cities Health District. The agency is operated by an appointed board of directors and not county commissioners. In a news release issued Wednesday district officials stated they would "begin operations immediately after Christmas."
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So far, more than 120 EMS workers have gotten the vaccine.
In a statement issued to FOX 7, WCCHD said the vaccinations will begin at 7:30 a.m. on Saturday, Dec. 26:
The Health District was told as late as Tuesday evening that vaccine would not be arriving on Wednesday, so it was a big surprise to our team when it arrived. Planning efforts, including the scheduling of hundreds Phase 1A Tier One first responders were finalized on Tuesday to include four consecutive days of operations, beginning at 0730 on the holiday weekend (Saturday, 12/26). Given that scheduling for a closed Point-of-Distribution (POD) site requires a lot of coordination with external partners, we felt it was important to be consistent and not create last-minute changes that would generate potential chaos, reduce turnout, and increase the potential for wasted vaccine doses, which must be administered within six hours of opening a vial.
"We got to realize and we can’t forget, we are in the middle of a pandemic, where people are dying daily," said Gravell.
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The message from Judge Gravell to the Health District was simple. "Step it up," he said. "Listen, this is not time for us to take a break, to celebrate with eggnog, it’s time for us to save lives. I can’t think of nothing more Christian than to take off Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and administer vaccine, it’s truly giving and the fact that we stopped for that is unexplainable."
The WCCHD responded to Gravell's criticism, saying that its vaccine operations are "based around shift change times that worked best for partner agencies". The district also stated that staff will be working through the holiday weekend during "their normally scheduled time off."
RELATED: Pfizer to give US another 100 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine
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Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine distributed across Central Texas
As the vaccine is administered across Texas, the state put out a map so Texans can monitor where it’s being administered.
State officials also sent out a letter from state health authority Dr. John Hellerstedt titled, "Priorities and Urgency." He sent it after learning that several county health districts in Texas appeared to be holding vaccines out of fear of a coming shortage. Hellerstedt assured them more is on the way.
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The WCCHD also responded to the memo, saying that the district's plans allow them to administer all received doses within four days of operation and based around shift change times desired by first responders "to ensure they have time to monitor for adverse reactions or side effects before returning to active duty."
The letter from Dr. Hellerstedt also urges counties to accurately report the number of people vaccinated. The Williamson County number, as of Christmas Eve morning, was listed at just under 1,800, compared to Travis County which reports that 6,500 have gotten their first shot.
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