Covid Vaccines Going Unfilled in Louisiana.

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  • JBP55

    La. CHP Instructor #409
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    Vaccine appointments in Louisiana are going unfilled -- sooner than officials thought.

    APR 7, 2021
    When COVID vaccines first opened to Louisiana residents over 70 in January, there was a mad scramble for appointments. Overloaded phone systems shut down as seniors called for hours to get an appointment. Lines stretched outside pharmacy doors. In Jefferson Parish, 500 appointments were snapped up in five minutes at the Alario Center in mid-February.

    But by the time the state opened vaccines to anyone 16 and older last week, appointments at many hospitals and clinics were wide open. Clinics found themselves with extra doses on the verge of expiring. LCMC Health started allowing walk-ins for first appointments a day before the expansion. Ochsner Health, the state’s largest health care provider, has open availability on its vaccine appointment page. And an analysis from GoodRx, a company that tracks drug prices, found that 48 of Louisiana’s 64 parishes had vaccine availability at Walmart and CVS pharmacies.
    “We’ve hit the low-hanging fruit of people who are very anxious, ‘I want to be vaccinated yesterday,’” said Dr. Jeffrey Elder, LCMC Health medical director of emergency management who oversees the system’s mass vaccination effort at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. “Now, we’re in the trenches.”

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    The change in vaccine demand and supply represents a shift that public health experts knew was coming, but did not expect this soon, said Elder, a situation spurred by the supply increase. And it could be a sign that Louisiana may have a lot of work ahead.

    “I think it would be a fallacy to think we can coast from here,” said Dr. Joe Kanter, Louisiana Department of Health state officer. Kanter noted that the state received 150,000 doses this week compared to around 90,000 weekly doses a month ago.

    But even considering increased supply, there are signs that Louisiana may have a harder time giving out the vaccine than other states. Louisiana ranks in the bottom five for a person’s likelihood of receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a recent survey by the U.S. Census Bureau. Only about 36% of adults said they hadn’t received a vaccine yet but would once it is available. The U.S. average is about 51%.

    At the same time, Louisiana is not keeping up with the national average for the percentage of the population vaccinated, hanging in the bottom six states at about 28%. It’s also in the bottom eight for the number of doses still sitting on shelves, having used 73% of its vaccine supply, down from a high of 88% in mid-February, according to data collected by USA Facts.

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    It’s not so much that demand has completely fallen off. Officials at LCMC Health and Ochsner Lafayette General Medical Center said appointments remained steady last week at about 1,000 per day. But with vaccine shipments larger than ever, that means many appointments are going unfilled.

    Our Lady of Lake Medical Center in Baton Rouge has been jabbing thousands of arms on the weekends and hundreds during the week. But just before eligibility was expanded, officials at the state's largest hospital say they noticed some appointment slots weren’t filling up as fast as they had been before the governor expanded eligibility to adults and older teens.

    “That last push will be the hardest,” O’Neal said. “It will be convincing people who really aren’t ready to get the vaccine that they need to get it to end the pandemic.

    When NOLA Ready sent out a text message last Wednesday to residents that a local clinic needed to give out 40 expiring doses by the end of the day, there was a line out the door, even as appointments went unfilled at mass vaccinations throughout the city. The clinic, Odyssey House Louisiana Community Health Center, vaccinated around 60 people before it had to turn people away at the door.

    “There are tons of people who want it, and there are providers who have it,” said Dr. Jennifer Velander, chief medial officer at Odyssey House. “But there doesn’t seem to necessarily be the best way to direct those people where to go. And so people are left calling around and not knowing where to look.”

    Some people who showed up needed a second dose after having trouble scheduling it in a convenient place, like Cliff Swanberry and William King, friends who got the first dose in Mississippi. And others happened to get the text when they were free from jobs with non-standard hours.

    “We’re open during the day and I’m off by three, and most places only give it until four,” said Jordan Candies, a server at Elizabeth’s in the Bywater. She hopped in her car after friends forwarded her the text and got one of the expiring doses during her day off.

    Patricia Thompson, spokesperson for Ochsner Lafayette General Medical Center, said the hospital is focusing on outreach to underserved communities, including Acadiana’s Black and Latino communities, by shifting its main clinic location to the Martin Luther King Recreation Center through May 30 and partnering with Asociación Cultural Latino-Acadiana for a vaccination clinic at the Robicheaux Recreation Center on April 11, including disseminating fliers in Spanish.
     
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