The difference in the distribution of vaccines in Maine is getting worse – and the explanations are controversial

The gaping regional diversity in vaccine availability in Maine has worsened this week after state allocations left massive vaccination sites serving northern York County and Portland’s western suburbs, operating at 50 to 80 percent of their capacity .

Meanwhile, Dr Nirav Shah, director of the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention, spent two minutes of the media briefing on Tuesday urging Mainers 70 and older to plan vaccinations at the Cross Insurance Center in Bangor, where Northern Light Health vaccinated more than 1,000. people per day, and repeat the phone number to call. The clinic had to scramble to fill appointment slots that were opened after a software bug was discovered.

However, MaineHealth’s Scarborough Downs vaccination site had only 80 percent for a vaccine shortage, despite the largest population of nearby York County, which has by far the largest number of unvaccinated more than 70 Mainers in the state: an estimated 16,500 as of Monday , based on census and demographic data, compared to 8,900 in Penobscot County, where the Cross Insurance Center is located.

Shah and MaineHealth have strongly conflicting reports on why this is happening – and why Northern Light and other Penobscot County providers received 8,720 doses this week, while York County providers received 1,600 and Scarborough Downs finished with 4,000 around Cumberland and York counties. to serve.

Cumberland County, with Scarborough Downs on the southern edge, received 9,120 doses, about the same number as Penobscot, although it has twice the population and houses the medical centers and vaccination centers that serve many of Sagadahoc and North York counties.

According to Shah, there was a lack of extra capacity at Scarborough and other massive vaccination centers in the state that received smaller grants than the number of unvaccinated people over 70 would mean in their service areas.

“I was very clear with my priorities: if you run a high-throughput website like the Cross Center or Scarborough Downs or Intermed, and you need more vaccination, we’ll find it,” Shah said in an interview on Wednesday. . ‘It’s not me who’s stingy or has a special love for Penobscot County. If they have people willing to get gunshots, I’ll get them vaccinated. ”

Shah said he has reached out to all the providers of mass vaccination sites and encouraged them to expand their capacity rapidly, as large sites have the fastest and most efficient methods of achieving effective herd immunity in a population. Northern Light took up the challenge, he said, expanding its capacity from 900 shots a day when it opened on February 2 to about 2,000 at present, and received major awards as a result.

“I offered it to other sites,” Shah said. ‘If (MaineHealth) needs more vaccination, I’ll get more. Tell me what you can do, then I’ll get it. ‘

This explanation does not apply to the Chief Medical Officer of MaineHealth, dr. Joan Boomsma, who said that the health system does not want bigger vaccines for Scarborough Downs and its other suppliers. The Scarborough Downs website is ready to deliver 5,000 first vaccine shots per week, but has received just enough vaccine from the Maine CDC to do approximately 4,000 first doses per week.

“MaineHealth has the ability to vaccinate significantly more qualified Mainters for COVID-19 if more vaccine is made available,” Boomsma said in a written response to questions.

As a whole, MaineHealth – the state’s largest healthcare network and the dominant provider in the provinces of Cumberland, York, Franklin, Oxford, Lincoln and Knox – received 8,250 first doses of the Maine CDC this week. “We can easily administer 12,000 first doses next week and even more next week,” Boomsma added.

She said MaineHealth emailed the leadership team at the Department of Health and Human Services by email on February 15 that it had ‘identified the necessary staff and set up the necessary infrastructure to make up to 25,000 total (first and second) to administer vaccine doses per week. . ”

She also said that the MaineHealth vaccination staff in Westbrook works on half of its 2,000 weekly first dose capacity, also due to lack of supply, and that the network systematically offers the vaccine at 35 to 40 percent of the capacity.

The waiting list for first doses of MaineHealth stands at about 30,000 eligible Mainers over 70 years old, Boomsma said. Some of them have been on the list since January 26th. More than half of them – about 18,000 – live in the counties of Cumberland and York.

“It is clear that we have an important opportunity to vaccinate Maine residents over the age of 70 in the southern part of the state, provided we have the vaccine to do so,” Boomsma concluded.

In response to MaineHealth’s allegations, Shah stood by his husband, saying MaineHealth had not yet reported that he had used all the doses for the week and that the hospital network had not communicated a specific request for more doses. ‘

“We continue to work with MaineHealth and other systems to vaccinate as many Maine residents as quickly and fairly as possible, and we look forward to a day when MaineHealth demonstrates that it can get more shots into people’s arms in line with Maine. vaccination plan. , ”Shah said in an email sent out Thursday night.

Shah and Governor Janet Mills sharply criticized MaineHealth after Press Herald columnist Bill Nemitz revealed that the network had vaccinated thousands of its remote, non-patient workers, as well as ten out-of-state consultants hired is to help create a union through Maine Medical Center nurses. Shah said on February 9 that vaccinations should be taken away from hospitals at hospitals that violate the vaccination guidelines.

There are also restrictions on supply at MaineGeneral’s new mass vaccination center at the Augusta Civic Center, which opened Feb. 17. It serves Kennebec County, which began the week with an estimated 9,939 eligible residents of 70 and older who have not yet received their first dose, or 58 percent of the age group, one of the worst figures in the state.

According to MaineGeneral, spokeswoman for MaineGeneral, the Maine CDC has allocated 2,100 doses to the province, 2,100 of which are used at the Augusta Civic Center site.

“We are able to increase our weekly vaccinations to vaccinate up to 1,000 people a day,” McKenna said in an email. “We have increased our vaccine order, adjusted our scheduling and our staff to meet this goal.”

The hospital faces a chicken-and-egg problem: staff will not allocate many staff to expand on-site capacity unless it knows it will receive a major increase in vaccine. “If we were to receive 1,000 additional doses tomorrow, it would take us a week to get staff scheduled and patients scheduled for the vaccination clinic,” she said.

As of Wednesday afternoon, she said it had about 5,000 people 70 years or older on the waiting list. “Since we know how many vaccines we will receive for next week, we are reaching out to get it scheduled.”

At Central Maine Healthcare, the parenting entity of Central Maine Medical Center, which is the main vaccination area of ​​Androscoggin County, supply is also the main limitation. “Our ability is based on the availability of vaccines,” said CMHC’s chief medical officer, Dr. John Alexander, said. “As it accelerates, so does our capacity.”

He said CMHC will also need advanced notice to dramatically increase capacity as it will have to distract qualified staff from other work.

At York Hospital, a 48-bed community hospital serving South York County, capacity appears to be a limiting factor. Hospital spokesman Jean Kolak said the vaccination site at St. Christopher’s Church in York has an effective capacity of 400 to 500 doses per day, but is still open five days a week and has received as many doses as it could handle. of Maine CDC.

The hospital’s backlog of eligible vaccine seekers stands at 4,950, she said.

Northern Light announced on Wednesday that the Cross Insurance Center Clinic in Bangor will expand from three to four days a week. Spokeswoman Suzanne Spruce said the network is still in high demand and that the slots opened this week are due to a software problem with the system that keeps the slots in reserve for people who need their second dose of vaccine.

“Once captured and corrected, a number of first-dose appointments opened for today and tomorrow,” Spruce said in an email. “Later in the day, we saw an increase in the number of people registering online and by phone, and we appreciate Dr. Shah’s help getting the message out.”

Some regions in eastern and northern Maine – also in the vicinity of Bangor – have likely reached the threshold of ‘early adopters’ of 70 and older who are actively trying to be vaccinated, Spruce said. “We now have a lot of people eagerly waiting their turn – especially the grouping of 65 and over,” she said.

The CDC in Maine could extend the use of vaccine to 65- to 69-year-olds as early as next week. “If there are open slots, it’s a good sign for us that we can open the categories to fill these places,” Shah said during Tuesday’s briefing.

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