Douglas County had a short end of the stick in the vaccine distribution, but it seems to change soon | Coronavirus

According to the Oregon Department of Health, Douglas County was the 12th largest county in Oregon County at 10,890 on Thursday, but it is the ninth largest county in the state. The counties with the highest total vaccinations include Jackson, Lane, Deschutz, Lynn, Benton, Pork, Marion, Yamhill, Krakamas Multnomah and Washington.

About 9.7% of Douglas County residents are vaccinated. Of the 36 counties in Oregon, only four have low per capita rates, Malheur, Morrow, Umatilla, and Colombia, according to Oregon Health Department statistics on Thursday. Josephine County is slightly ahead at 9.74%.

The rest is over 10%. Wheeler, a strange small county that makes up 30.8% of the total vaccinated population of 1,438, stands out.

In an interview Wednesday, Douglas County Public Health Officer Bob Danenhoffer said there was a challenge that the state had not distributed vaccines based on population until this point. And that means that the inhabitants of Douglas County got a short end of the stick.

However, Danenhoffer said the situation in Douglas County is about to improve dramatically.

Douglas County is disproportionate from the state, largely because the state preferred to ship vaccines to large, well-connected hospital systems in other counties such as Lane County’s Peace Health and Portland’s Providence. Received a lower vaccine dose allocation. These hospitals have the potential to provide large clinics that reach larger segments of the population, Dannenhoffer said.

Deschutes County’s St. Charles Bend Hospital received 17,000 vaccines one weekend, while Douglas County received just 1,000 vaccines the same weekend.

“So St. Charles held a big event and when we were just starting out, they were able to get through a lot of 1a, some of the teachers, and some of their seniors,” Dannhoffer said. Told.

The CHI Mercy Medical Center is a large fish in a small pond in Roseburg, but its parent, the non-profit Catholic Health Initiatives, operates a hospital only in Pendleton, another other city in Oregon. As a result, he said it did not receive as much distribution from the state as other hospital systems.

Danenhoffer claimed that Douglas County had a fair share and said it was a “saddle burr” for state officials.

“Every time I call, they say,’Bob, you’re right, we’re going to fix this,'” he said.

Dannenhoffer said state officials have guaranteed that the county is catching up this week and starting to receive a significant proportion of the dose.

He said the county expected to receive 3,600 doses by the weekend. This is a big boost for the program, which had received only 6,500 vaccines as of Wednesday.

In the coming weeks, Douglas County expects to receive 2,500 first doses and 1,000-2,500 second doses per week. It is a total of 3,500 to 5,000 doses per week.

For the elderly, the dose is per capita. Douglas County has 3.9% of the state’s elderly population, so in addition to 3.9% of the dose available in the state, it will receive additional vaccines to supplement the counties that were previously in short supply. Become.

The 10,890 vaccine numbers listed by the Oregon Department of Health in Douglas County include 6,500 vaccines shipped to local public health, as well as an additional 4,000 vaccines sent to Mercy.

Another 3,000 vaccines sent directly from the federal government to the Roseburg VA Medical Center are not included in health official statistics. The number of vaccines given to nursing home patients and staff through the Federal Pharmacy Program is unknown and unreported.

As the state distributes vaccines more evenly, the county still has a shortage of federal vaccines.

As very clearly shown last week, it is the federal government that sends vaccines to the states in the first place when storms stop shipping vaccines in most parts of the country. Oregon cannot ship vaccines to counties that do not have it.

And even in the absence of bad weather, the dose received from the federal government was only a fraction of the dose needed to meet demand. It’s a problem not only here, but everywhere.

Dannenhoffer is optimistic that the situation has also been resolved.

“People have to put up with it for six or eight weeks. We’ll definitely get there,” he said.

When Douglas County received the new vaccine shipment, Danenhoffer said he would distribute the vaccine to local vaccinations the next day. The vaccine is then delivered to people’s arms within 5 days.

Many people want them.

“Currently, there is much more supply than supply, but in the summer it can be more than demand,” he said.

But he hopes the demand will continue to grow. Herd immunity is reached when 65% to 75% of the county’s population gains immunity because of illness or vaccination. That is the point where it is really difficult for the disease to spread.

Despite the vaccination shortage facing the county, Dannnhoffer said he was grateful that he was able to get the vaccine just one year after the pandemic broke out. He said the fact that it is so effective and so safe is also amazing.

“Be aware of the bumps and dips on the road, such as enough weather delays. That’s life,” he said.

“That’s what happened and we’ll get there, and we’re seeing a very different September 2021 possibility than September 2020,” he said.