This is not the DMV


I see the Oregonian did a brief story yesterday about how slow the State of Oregon has been in getting Covid vaccine doses administered.

Oregon has given 48,725 vaccine shots since the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine was approved Dec. 11. But Oregon has received 190,500 doses, meaning that about 141,000 doses are still sitting in boxes as the virus continues spreading and mutating. The state health authority said 1,700 doses were given yesterday and another 1,700 shots were recorded from earlier days.

At a pace of 3,400 shots a day, it would take until May 2024 to vaccinate all 4.2 million Oregonians.

That sounds familiar.

It seems as though the state is treating this project like the DMV, where everything's slow and long waits are just part of the game. They're going to be open limited hours, and you have to take a number.

But the public should be demanding more, a lot more, than that. This is the worst threat to life and livelihood in a century. We need vaccination centers, lots of them, that are open all night. Especially when we're concentrating on health care workers. Hospitals are open 24/7. Vaccinations should be going 24/7. 

They had nine months to plan for this.

Comments

  1. There are times when the general incompetence of Oregon's governmental bodies looks like a feature, not a bug. This time, it's literally a deadly bug. Someone that knows how to get things done needs to be put in charge of this that knows logistics and how to get difficult things done on a schedule. Maj. Gen. Michael Stencel, who heads up the Oregon National Guard was trained as an engineer, so he's a problem solver. I nominate him to take over distribution and administration of the vaccine.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sorry for the redundancy in the third sentence there. Would edit if I could.

      Delete
    2. " A feature, not a bug." Such an apt description.

      Delete

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