By 
Spencer Custodio |
Some of the most of Orange County vulnerable residents are blocked of receiving coronavirus vaccines because the rollout is plagued by errors and oversight, which elicits criticism from OC supervisors.
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Since the vaccination registration program, called Othena, was launched a few weeks ago, many people have complained about it. errors and interruptions, which prevents them from signing up.
Some people mistakenly got their vaccination appointments through Othena, only to be turned away when they went to the supersites for vaccination.
‘So I registered as soon as OC Health said. I did not expect anything and then on Thursday I received the email congratulating that we have a dose for you. And I was really surprised, so I made sure it was Othena, ‘said Suzanne Haggerty, a 60-year-old resident of Rancho Santa Margarita.
Because the current distribution plans require people 65 and older, Haggerty said she was surprised to get a vaccine confirmation by Othena, and thought the service had set medical records, showing that she had breathing problems.
She was turned away at the Disneyland supersite.
“I was there for 2.5 hours,” she said during a Monday telephone interview. ‘I stand this side of the table and give my ID and the man says you have to go home. He said you are not 65. ”
According to her, another person was also turned away and a worker in the supersite told her that they turn people away in similar situations on a daily basis.
“The level of incompetence absolutely blew me away,” Haggerty said. “I tried to sign up with Othena and it will not even allow me again.”
Some OC overseers publicly criticized Othena during Tuesday’s public meeting.
“There’s one thing we can all agree on – Othena sucks,” supervisor Don Wagner said. “It’s a mess. It’s gotten better. You know it’s a mess, CEO (Frank Kim) knows it’s a mess, everyone on this council knows it’s a mess.”
OC health officer Dr Clayton Chau said mistakes were expected.
“I have already mentioned it: when a system is set up, there are always errors. And we hear people’s frustration. It is even significantly improved within a few days, ”said Chau.
Questions also revolve around how the vaccine is distributed in nursing homes, which should be done by pharmacies such as Walgreens and Rite Aid through a partnership with the state.
Jill Swartz, a resident of Orange, said the virus killed her mother while she waited for the vaccine to arrive at the Silverado Newport Mesa nursing home.
Her mother first tested positive for the virus on Jan. 13 and died on Jan. 17, she said.
“The most vulnerable residents in these facilities are dying,” Swartz said in a Friday telephone interview.
Swartz said the nursing home was expecting the vaccine in December, but Walgreens has not yet been able to deliver the vaccine.
She said the facility had an outbreak.
According to an email from nursing home administrators, the vaccinations at Silverado Newport Mesa will begin Friday.
“If they got it when they wanted to do it, the outbreak would not have to be that bad,” Swartz said. “It’s too late for my mother.”
At a news conference earlier this month, Chau said he or the Health Care Agency did not know what the pharmacies were like. to vaccinate people in old age homes, or how many vaccinations have been given.
It is also unclear how state health officials monitor the vaccinations done by the pharmacy partnerships.
Chau also said the country distributes only about 20% of all vaccines sent to Orange County. The rest, he said, went to hospitals and other healthcare providers.
The issue of vaccinating the nursing home was not discussed during Tuesday’s supervisor meeting.
‘How can they not have that information? I just find it absolutely incredible, ”Swartz said.
When provincial officials unveiled the Soka University vaccination supersite during a Saturday news conference, Chau said OC has about 66,000 vaccines on hand and that about 600,000 people currently qualify for them.
“We have a limited supply,” Chau said. “Know my staff, and I work tirelessly with our state partners to bring more vaccine.”
Swartz said county officials should focus on vaccinating the most vulnerable elderly before expanding the number of people eligible for vaccinations when public health officials lowered the age requirement to 65 and older a few weeks ago.
‘They keep talking about this limited offer. Why did you open it up to 65 years and older? You have not yet vaccinated the most vulnerable population. “And someone has to be held accountable for that – the bad decisions, the negligence, they have to be taken into account,” she said.
Meanwhile, some residents have a language barrier trying to register for the vaccine.
Othena does not offer language options, although in the $ 1.2 million contract with Othena developer Composite Apps, Inc. a translation into Spanish, Mandarin, Vietnamese and Korean is required.
‘The lack of ethnic languages … the hotline – I commented. On the English line, the phone just rings and rings and rings. And on the ethnic side, they have people who do not speak the language, and it comes back to the English line, and then it is not picked up. So the frustration is a multiple, ‘Andrew Do said.
Chau said they are working on the language barrier.
But Do said people expect all the kinks and oversight to be worked out in advance.
‘For the average person, these are problems that you should immediately think about when designing a system. Not 30 days in it. ”
Supervisor Doug Chaffee said the revised Othena app needs to be tested first.
‘Are we going to test before we put it out there? I realize that in the first place it was possibly part of the problem with Othena, ”said Chaffee. “I’m worried about some of our seniors who may be a little technologically illiterate.”
According to Chau, the health care agency is working with CalOptima to target vulnerable elderly people in an effort to get them vaccinated through a mobile vaccination program.
“We still have problems with Othena, so we have to work on it,” Chaffee said.
Last week, Gavin Newsom quietly launched a government-wide vaccine vaccination program in an effort to streamline the broken deployment.
“I think we will be able to transmit Othena’s data directly into the state system,” said Supervisor Lisa Bartlett.
She said the app was created in a way to ‘literally take all the data fields and move to a new system. So we must not lose anything in translation. ”
Wagner apparently disagrees with Bartlett’s assessment.
“I have to say I share a bit of the skepticism of Supervisor Wagner,” Do said.
Wagner replies: ‘Call me skeptical. Keep a close eye on them. Strength.”
While provincial officials are trying to iron out wrinkles in efforts to do massive vaccination of OC, virus hospitalizations have decreased.
As of Tuesday, 1,677 people have been admitted to the hospital, including 437 in intensive care units.
But deaths were gradually increasing.
Since January began, the Health Care Agency has reported that 895 people have died from the virus.
Newly reported deaths can last for weeks due to delays.
The virus has now killed 2,768 people, including 64 new deaths reported Tuesday, out of a quarter of a million confirmed cases, according to the County Health Care Agency.
The virus has already killed five times as many people as the flu on an annual average.
In context, Orange County has averaged about 20,000 deaths a year since 2016, including 543 annual flu deaths, according to health status data.
According to the state’s death statistics, cancer kills more than 4,600 people, heart disease kills more than 2,800, more than 1,400 die as a result of Alzheimer’s disease and strokes kill more than 1,300 people.
According to Orange, Orange County has already exceeded its annual average of 20,000 deaths, with 21,110 people in November. available state data.
It is a difficult virus for the medical community to tackle because some people show no symptoms but can still spread it. Others feel slight symptoms, such as fatigue and mild fever.
Others end up in ICUs for days and weeks before making it out, while others eventually die from the virus.
Swartz said she tried to plan an appointment with Othena for her mother.
“I tried it and it was just a disaster,” she said.
She said the approach to broken vaccine in OC and across the state is a disaster.
“I know we are in the middle of a pandemic. I know things are a little crazy, but that we get a vaccine was no surprise; we knew it was coming, ‘Swartz said. “Their communication with the public was lacking and was not clear. On all fronts, I feel like it was a disaster. ‘
For more information on the COVID-19 vaccine in Orange County, visit our Voice or OC information sheet: http://bit.ly/occovidvaccine.
Here is the latest information on virus numbers in Orange County:
Infections | Hospitalizations and deaths | City-by-city data | Demographics
Spencer Custodio is a reporter for Voice of OC. You can reach him at [email protected] Follow him on Twitter @SpencerCustodio