Raleigh, NC Government Roy Cooper mobilized the North Carolina National Guard on Tuesday to speed up the vaccination of the state.
“Ensuring COVID-19 vaccines are administered rapidly is currently our top priority,” Cooper tweeted. “We will use all the necessary resources and staff. I have mobilized the NC National Guard to provide support to local health care providers as we continue to increase the rate of vaccinations.”
North Carolina has one of the lowest rates of vaccine administration in the state, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The slow explosion of vaccines is not just a phenomenon in North Carolina, and a number of health experts have criticized the vaccine-wide nationwide.
“The U.S. has really slowed down the explosion of vaccines,” Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist who recently left Harvard University for the Federation of American Scientists, said on Twitter on Monday. “Only 4 million shots will be delivered in a month, despite the promise of 20 million by the end of 2020. The US should give 7-10 million vaccines a week.”
But the process was particularly slow in North Carolina, based on data released by the CDC. The CDC said from Tuesday that North Carolina had 498,450 doses delivered and 121881 administered. The state’s vaccination rate per 100,000 people made North Carolina the twelfth slowest city in the country.
“Although a vaccine was created sooner than expected, the state has had months to draw up a distribution plan. It is inexcusable that vaccines have been on the shelf for so long,” said Lauren Horsch, a spokeswoman for the president. Senate, Pro Tem Phil Berger, said. . “It is good that the governor is realizing this and plans to mobilize the National Guard. We are waiting to see if there is a plan behind the announcement.”
Cooper’s move comes two days after State Representative Billy Richardson, D-Cumberland, asked Cooper to enlist the help of the National Guard.
“The numbers of North Carolina people taking Covid daily are staggering, and the slow spread of the vaccines is alarming,” Richardson wrote in his letter. “Now is the time to act quickly and with a new commitment to dual results.”
The letter states that 26 states have planned to mobilize their Guard units to help distribute vaccines, a figure reported by the Department of Defense’s national watchdog in mid-December.
The figure may now be lower. A spokesman for the bureau told WRAL News on Tuesday that seven states were using National Guard units to provide some sort of support, but that may not be a complete score.
Richardson said it was “not wise” for hospitals and other healthcare providers to already struggle with the rise in coronavirus patients to deal with vaccination logistics as well.
“What we need to do is use the different resources of the state and the country to help the health care system do what they do best,” he said.
“There are some who can actually help give vaccinations; others will help with logistics and other things,” said Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the State Department of Health and Human Services, said about the assistance of the National Guard.
Richardson also called on the leaders of the General Assembly to reconsider the vaccination on issues, or at least to be ready for action on the first day of a legislative session starting as early as next week.
Just what legislation is needed is not spelled out, but Richardson said the state “must empower and fund our national guard to overcome the barriers that currently hamper the efficient and rapid delivery of vaccines to our citizens.”
“The day we are sworn in, we are put to work,” Richardson told WRAL News. “When we focus on a specific problem, magic happens.”
The legislature should focus on solutions instead of roll-out problems, he said. But a legislative oversight committee is already planning to go into a meeting next week on the distribution of vaccines.
“It’s unprecedented, and we’re going to make mistakes,” Richardson said.