The president forced Oregon to have everyone sign up for a COVID-19 vaccine in two weeks. Why did we wait?

On April 6, President Joe Biden announced that by April 19, all U.S. adults would be eligible for a COVID-19 vaccine.

“That’s the way to beat it,” Biden said Tuesday, announcing he would extend his two-week deadline. “Get the vaccination when you can.”

In most U.S. states, this was an unnecessary assignment. They have already planned to admit all residents aged 16 and over on or near that date. But not Oregon.

Gov. Kate Brown and health officials have stuck to their plan to gradually introduce COVID-19 vaccinations to people with a serious illness, and workers at work with a high risk of exposure. She did not intend to be eligible for a first dose to all adults until May 1st.

Hours after the news broke that Biden would be issuing his order, Brown announced that she would comply. In her statement, the president is not mentioned. Instead, she reiterated the importance of getting vaccines for the most vulnerable people in Oregon.

“We need to reach Oregonians where they are, including those who may not have easy access to health care or the opportunity to take time off from their jobs,” Brown said in her statement.

Only two other states waited after April 19th.

Last week, Washington declared that all residents will be eligible for a shot from April 15th. This is the date California has already circulated on the calendar. In Idaho? That made everyone eligible a week ago.

This made Oregon an island of forced patience. Prayers that push the deadline up bring Brown’s carefully orchestrated vaccine drive into uncertainty – one that experts say the governor arranged earlier in the implementation to compensate for headline decisions.

You may have questions. Here are the answers to a number of questions that come to mind in the short time to wait.

Why can’t everyone in Oregon have a COVID-19 shot now?

The simple answer? The state still has a shortage of vaccines.

Some math: there are 3.5 million Oregonians over the age of 16, of whom 1.3 million have received at least a first dose, according to data from the Oregon Health Authority. That leaves up to 2.2 million Oregonians on COVID-19 vaccine doses, if all are now eligible.

This week, OHA says it is receiving a record number of prime doses: 275,000.

Do you see the mismatch? There are eight Oregonians who want a vaccine available for each dose this week.

For the next few weeks, the state expects far fewer doses – only 150,000 a week – because Johnson & Johnson had a manufacturing problem that would delay doses nationwide.

In other words, getting everyone eligible for a vaccine is not the same as giving everyone a vaccine.

“If we were to just open it up to everyone, people would still have to wait in line,” said Oregon State University professor Courtney Campbell, a bioethicist.

Why then did other states qualify for all?

Some states have a lesser match between supply and demand. Take Idaho, which cited a lack of demand because many people could not vaccinate in it: the COVID vaccination rate is the eighth lowest in the country.

Other states say they move fast because they have a lot of vaccinations.

Gavin Newsom, governor of California, cited “abundance” on March 25 as the reason he increased admissions so quickly – at least before the Johnson & Johnson postponed.

Washington also cited many vaccinations. “Thanks to the increasing supply of vaccines from the federal government and the hard work of our suppliers across the state to get shots in the arms, we are able to expand the admission faster than anyone initially thought,” said Dr. Umair A. Shah, Washington’s health minister, said. a statement on 31 March.

But the countries also do not have enough supplies to vaccinate every suitable person. In some cases, they may have more doses than Oregon – OHA has complained that it receives less than its fair share – but not so much that they can meet the expected increase in demand once everyone is eligible.

In other words, more people are not getting a vaccine in California. Instead, different people can get it.

What else did Oregon do?

The Brown government cited a commitment to equity as its reason for keeping the qualification relatively narrow. She says she wants to make sure that the communities most affected by COVID-19 get first access to the vaccines.

“At the moment, we are focused on ensuring that populations have the opportunity to receive their vaccine before it opens to every Oregonian 16 and older,” Brown Boyle spokesman Charles Boyle said. WW on March 29. “Oregon’s prioritization scheme is designed to ensure fairness in distribution when scarce vaccine supplies.”

Oregon has so far had a mixed history of vaccine distribution so far.

As of March 29, an analysis by the Kaiser Family Foundation showed only a 2 percentage point difference between black and white Oregonians for vaccinations. This is the second smallest racial gap in the country.

But the state has a 15-point gap between white and Spanish Oregonians, which is worse than the national average, placing Oregon 20th out of the thirty states that report demographic data.

Perhaps it’s because Oregon has done slower work to take frontline workers and people with high-risk medical conditions into consideration for the shots than other states, just as the state was slower to qualify older Oregonians. Both Washington and California were previously eligible for these groups and have a lower gap between their Spanish and white vaccination rates.

Brown, who announced the move to April 19, cites her ongoing commitment to equity.

“Over the next two weeks, we will devote all available resources to ensuring that Oregon’s frontline workers and people with underlying conditions have access to vaccines – two groups in which Oregonians from color communities are predominantly represented.”

Who’s Right – Biden or Brown?

Oregon fell behind with its vaccination rate, from 16th in the country to 32nd. Clearly, speed does matter if the goal is to prevent deaths. So there is a need to go as fast as possible – which means that all obstacles must be removed.

But some critics of the governor’s previous decisions on vaccine admissions say the groups currently eligible are critical.

The state has had the opportunity to address the injustice of its previous decisions – such as vaccinating teachers early and giving shots to grocery workers much later, Oregon experts said. To be eligible now would create a huge demand and express frontline workers who waited until February and March.

“If you open it up to everyone now, some individuals have greater access to transportation, the proximity of vaccination clinics, the proximity of information,” says Campbell of OSU. Allowing this to happen, he adds, will exacerbate the abuse of a particularly scarce resource in late January and early February.

In other words, Oregon was stuck with its ordering system because it was short-lived earlier during the vaccination of some vulnerable people.

Several experts point out that suitability is not the only answer to ensure fairness. Some states hold vaccinations for certain groups that are not under service, even though they open vaccinations to everyone. And more outreach is needed for public health agencies in Oregon, whose vulnerability has already been exposed by other parts of the pandemic.

“There are so many other factors that come into play,” said Nambi Ndugga, a policy analyst at the Kaiser Family Foundation’s program for racial equity and health. “Accessibility, working hours, filing for the vaccine are examples. Addressing these other barriers to equity will affect how fair the vaccine is.”

Even before Biden’s announcement, Brown said she felt an urgent need to get shots in the arms.

“Make no mistake, this is a race between the vaccines and the variants,” she said on April 2. “This is a critical moment for all of us to double down so we can cross the next wave.”