RALEIGH, NC (AP) – North Carolina’s top public health official said Tuesday that most nursing home workers refuse to get coronavirus vaccines offered in a state that has now become one of the slowest from the country to receive doses in people’s arms.
In an interview with The Associated Press, Mandy Cohen, secretary of the State Department of Health and Human Services, attributed some of the slowdown behind staff shortages, lack of familiarity with state technology systems and logistical obstacles to working with dozens of hospitals and 100 different counties across the state.
Her comments came shortly after the governor announced on Tuesday the deployment of members of the National Guard to speed up the administration of doses.
“We have a decentralized system in North Carolina,” Cohen said. “We have 83 local public health departments, we have 100 counties. We are very proud of that, but when you decentralize things, it creates slowness. We try to find the right balance of recognizing the strengths of our local areas, but also recognizing where the challenges are. “
Roy Cooper, the new Democratic governor of North Carolina, wrote on Twitter that providing vaccines to people “is our top priority right now.”
“We will use all the necessary resources and staff,” Cooper wrote. “We have mobilized the NC National Guard to provide support to local health care providers as we continue to increase vaccination rates.”
The North Carolina National Guard said in a press release that it has mobilized about 50 employees in support of anticipated requests from state partners and county health departments. The guard will be operational this week, according to the press release.
Nearly 110,000 people in North Carolina had received the first dose since Tuesday morning, according to the state health department.. Nearly 500 people had received a second dose.
The administration of the initial doses so far represents less than 1% of the state’s population of 10.5 million people. Data collected and shared by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention On Monday, it ranked North Carolina as the sixth worst state in the country in per capita vaccinations. Kansas, Georgia, Mississippi, Alabama and Arizona ranked worse.
Cohen noted that the hesitation of the vaccine among long-term caregivers is “worrying,” given the anecdotal reports the state has collected so far. North Carolina is working with Walgreens and CVS, which are responsible for vaccinating residents and workers in long-term care settings, to access and report concrete data. She believes North Carolina is facing something similar to an estimate made last week by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine, noting that about 60 percent of long-term care staff refused vaccination.
“I warn you it’s anecdotal, but we certainly hear that more than half (are) in decline (the vaccine) and this is worrying,” Cohen said.
According to the state’s COVID dashboard, nearly 166,000 vaccine doses have been allocated to state long-term care facilities since Monday. Of these, 13,338 doses were administered.
However, demand across the country far exceeds the available weekly supply of 120,000 doses. North Carolina is expected to receive this month from the administration of President Donald Trump.
Cohen said some members of the National Guard will serve as vaccinators, while others will help local health departments with logistical processes to check people at locations and ensure that they remain masked and physically distant from each other.
Hospital workers were the first to receive doses, and some remain unvaccinated due to limited supply. Starting Wednesday, a small number of counties will begin administering doses to people aged 75 and over.
The high level of demand has raised concerns about fairness and fairness, especially as some local health departments require residents to make an appointment online. Appointments can be completed quickly and those with fewer digital skills or living in rural communities without broadband access could be left behind.
“We continue to have structural inequalities in our system that are only embedded in the way we operate as a government (and) in the way we operate as a medical system,” Cohen said. “There are people who have access and who don’t. I think we need to recognize it and then build systems that can try to overcome it. “
Although North Carolina health officials have slowed to receive doses of Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in the arms of residents, there are similar problems in other states.
Federal health officials did not meet the goal of vaccinating 20 million Americans by the end of December. The CDC said On Tuesday, more than 17 million doses were distributed and 4.8 million people received a first dose.
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Anderson is a member of the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a non-profit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercover issues.