Elderly Oregonians who tried to enroll at some local pharmacies this week for COVID-19 vaccinations have learned that they are no longer eligible for appointments due to the new national leadership of the White House that teachers are putting forward.
But Oregon has already put teachers ahead and given permission for vaccinations on Jan. 25, even as seniors were forced to wait until Feb. 8 to March 1 for their turn. Oregon is now significantly behind states like California and Washington in the rate of vaccinations among the elderly.
Federal policy comes down to another setback for older Oregonians, who are among the most vulnerable to the virus. It has asked Gov. Kate Brown and the Oregon Health Authority to encourage local pharmacies to disregard federal leadership and continue to vaccinate seniors 65 and older.
“It was a decision taken at the federal level without prior consultation with state leaders,” Charles Boyle, a spokesman for Brown’s office, said in an email Tuesday. “Governor Brown is working directly with the White House to update this policy so that pharmacies participating in the federal program in states like Oregon, which has largely vaccinated our educators, can continue to schedule appointments for the elderly.”
President Joe Biden announced on March 2 that he would give preference to teachers before the end of March, which is part of a national effort to reopen schools safely. To do so, he said he would ask pharmacies participating in the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program to make appointments for teachers starting this week.
“To help make this happen, starting next week and for a month – March -, we will use our federal pharmacy program to prioritize the vaccination of pre-K through 12 educators and staff and childminders,” Biden said. said. .
The new limits only apply to the appointment of vaccines at retail pharmacies participating in the federal program, which according to the Oregon Health Authority will receive 24,000 doses across Oregon this week. There is no indication that the new policy will affect people with existing appointments at pharmacies. Other sites, including clinics and mass vaccinations such as the Oregon Convention Center, continue to make appointments for Oregonians over the age of 65 and others eligible according to state guidelines. These sites will receive approximately 90,000 doses this week.
The change in the Biden administration left the pharmacies at Safeway, Albertsons and Health Mart so that only teachers and child care workers could schedule COVID-19 vaccine appointments via their online systems on Tuesday. Costco and Walgreens did not set the same requirements.
People who called Brooklyn Pharmacy, a subsidiary of Health Mart in Southeast Portland, were met on Tuesday with a voice recording in which it was said that the pharmacy would set aside specific days this month to set up teachers to make vaccinations.
The survey indicated that it was not clear when seniors would be eligible to sign up for COVID-19 vaccine appointments through the pharmacy again, but recommended that elderly Oregonians continue to check the pharmacy’s website for any changes. to the criteria.
“If you are over 65 and not a childminder or educator, you will no longer be available these days,” the poll said.
Kristen Breland, a spokeswoman for Health Mart, said the pharmacy chain is prioritizing educators for appointing vaccines on Monday and Tuesday to meet federal requirements, but plans to make appointments for other eligible Oregonians later this week. She said the pharmacy is evaluating additional days this month on which teachers prioritize for vaccinations.
“As a pharmacist partner in the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program, Health Mart supports the administration’s leadership in prioritizing doses for educators, staff, and child care workers before the age of 12,” she said in an email. “We apologize for the patient’s frustrations.”
A spokesman for Safeway and Albertsons did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The new federal guidance that prioritizes the appointments for teachers at those pharmacies lasts until the end of March. It appears that it will be up to individual pharmacies to interpret the federal guidance, if no additional explanation is requested by state leaders.
“We recognize that jurisdictions are at different stages of vaccination of priority populations, and in some countries, including teachers, school staff, and child care workers,” Kate Grusich, a spokeswoman for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in an e-mail Tuesday. post said noon. “CDC will continue to work closely with pharmacist partners in each state and territory to evaluate and achieve the objectives of the Directive, as well as to ensure that vaccine use is maximized among other jurisdiction priority groups.”
The change in leadership is once again frustrating for seniors and advocates who initially failed over Brown’s decision in January to prioritize teachers for vaccinations at the expense of seniors. Teachers in Oregon have been eligible for vaccines since Jan. 25, while seniors 80 and older are only eligible on Feb. 8, and 65-year-olds and older are only eligible on March 1st.
An February 20 analysis by The Oregonian / OregonLive showed that Oregon ranked third among the 31 states with comparable data for the percentage of elderly people vaccinated.
About 44% of Oregon’s elderly people age 65 and older have been vaccinated, according to Oregon Health Authority data. Similar data were not available on the percentage of teachers in Oregon who were vaccinated.
The Oregon Health Authority announced earlier this week that it is providing three clinics with at least 15,000 doses of COVID-19 per week for large weeks to major clinic providers to vaccinate seniors 65 and older in the counties of Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas and Columbia.
However, many elderly Oregonians have struggled in the past month to plan vaccination directly through the state, as it has been flooded with appointment requests, which have prompted a new lottery system for the Oregon Convention Center. The pharmacies were a welcome alternative for the elderly who could make limited appointments.
The director of the Oregon Health Authority, Patrick Allen, sent letters on Saturday to the pharmacies of Safeway and Albertsons and others participating in the federal program, urging them to continue to hold appointments for seniors. According to the Oregon Health Authority, the federal government is also seeking further clarification on the new guidance, according to Delia Hernández, a spokeswoman for the agency.
“In Oregon (teachers and childminders) have been eligible for vaccination since Jan. 25, and we believe most have received an appointment or a vaccine at this time,” Hernández said in an email. OHA has requested that participating pharmacies continue to ensure access to all individuals in Oregon. However, we are aware that pharmacies approach these CDC guidelines in different ways. ”
Edie Rogoway, a Portland criminal defense attorney, is one of dozens of formal and informal volunteers who helped Oregon seniors sign up for COVID-19 vaccine appointments. Rogoway said it appears that seniors on Monday stopped being eligible for vaccine appointments at pharmacies.
Rogoway said she was shocked and disappointed that elderly Oregonians at greatest risk of dying from the virus would be excluded from appointments again, just as they were finally starting to gain access to the vaccines.
She blamed Brown for not wanting an explanation for the new leadership earlier and worked with the federal government to ensure seniors are not allowed to receive vaccinations at pharmacies.
“I think the governor should at least have communicated with them and said, ‘Listen, we put our teachers first,'” Rogoway said. ” They’ve been getting the vaccine for weeks. We are now just joining the seniors. We need some kind of release or to work. ”
– Jamie Goldberg | [email protected] | @jamiebgoldberg