Thousands of state officials in southern Nevada, including some who work remotely, have offered COVID-19 vaccines that are frustratingly difficult for many senior residents to secure many of the state’s elders.
Nevada is one of about one-third of the states where the potential life-saving vaccine is not yet 65 to 69 years old. Even qualifying residents 70 years and older discouraged themselves through the implementation, with appointments that are difficult to meet doses short.
Local government officials say that distribution to municipal and provincial workers is based on criteria set out in the state’s “playbook” on the distribution of vaccinations. When it was revised last month, the essential workers came to the forefront of vaccinations with older Nevadans.
“We are trying to get it to the people who need it most as soon as possible,” Gov. Steve Sisolak said Thursday about the intent of the so-called two-track rollout.
But Shirley Brice, a 66-year-old resident of Henderson with two heart conditions, said: ‘Why is Nevada not pulling the trigger on 65-plus people? If we want to prevent people from dying from this, it would seem that age should be one of the first things to consider. ”
In Nevada, 64 percent of deaths were due to COVID-19 at age 70 and older and 20 percent at age 60 to 69, according to state data.
‘Continuity of management’
In Clark County, certain government officials may qualify for the vaccine, which is now under a professional priority group called ‘Government Continuity’, which according to the playbook includes government, local and other elected officials and support staff such as the Legislative Advisory Bureau. It does not determine which other staff may be eligible.
But mere inclusion in the category does not mean that a worker should automatically receive doses.
The playbook states that no employee who can work remotely or socially while performing their duties is recommended to currently receive a vaccine. Instead, each government is given the discretion to decide whether or not the employee can avoid close and prolonged contact with others, and seeks to preserve a limited amount of vaccines for individuals at higher risk.
Yet doses were offered to every employee in the city of Las Vegas and Clark County, most workers in the city of Henderson and at least half the workforce in North Las Vegas, although not all workers accepted their chance to take a chance. do not get, local government officials said this week.
“I think at this stage we are just trying to get (the vaccines) there, and all our employees are dealing with the public,” said the provincial commissioner, Tick Segerblom, who is also on the council of the South. -Nevada Health District sits. “When one of our employees goes down, it affects a lot of other people.”
Officials stressed that more workers are at the forefront than usual during the pandemic, as they are being targeted in new roles in public to help respond to the crisis.
In the city of Las Vegas, where more than 1,300 of approximately 2,700 employees received a first dose of vaccine as of February 5, the availability of vaccinations, coupled with a decrease in local cases of coronavirus, led to the city’s decision to remove return to full-time, personal work on March 15, according to city officials.
‘Push to the front of the line’
But New York University medical ethicist Arthur Caplan described the approach of prioritizing so many people in government as ‘just a version to push to the front of the line’, saying that government continuity was merely a pretext that ‘nothing to do with trying to protect people who are legally in danger. ”
Many in the government perform functions that can and should be done remotely, while vaccination is scarce, with the limited stock needed for real workers, ”said Caplan, director of the Division of Medical Ethics at the Grossman School of Medicine. said.
“Government officials need to do better if they try to follow health recommendations,” he said.
In Henderson, more than 1,000 of the 3,082 full-time and part-time employees in the city received a first dose of vaccine, spokeswoman Kathleen Richards said Tuesday. According to the city, some workers were not eligible, but most offered the vaccine, including some working remotely.
About 360 Las Vegas employees offered a dose, working alternately from home and the office to limit the number of people in the workplace on any given day, according to city spokesman David Riggleman.
According to Dan Kulin, spokesman for Dan Kulin, all 10,000 Clark County employees have had the opportunity to be vaccinated. Segerblom said he was not sure how many employees could work remotely.
In North Las Vegas, about 700 employees – or about half of the city’s workforce – who usually interact with colleagues or the public, have received at least a first dose, spokesman Patrick Walker said. He did not specify how many employees were offered a dose.
“I think there is justification for a large-scale vaccination for public employees, mainly because of the work they do,” said Scott Black, a city councilor from North Las Vegas. He is also the chairman of the health district council.
The practice is not limited to municipalities and provinces.
The Clark County School District has already offered 42,000 teachers and staff vaccinations, though it remains unclear how many will return to the actual classrooms this school year, while teaching has so far been done online.
Responsibility for verifying suitability
The health district in southern Nevada offers doses to the governments and recommends that they follow the state book, but do not approve their implementation plans, said dr. Fermin Leguen, chief health officer, said Wednesday.
The district is helping governments with all questions about administering the vaccine to its employees, he added.
When asked on Thursday whether local government employees are giving access to broad vaccines that match the intent of the playbook, Sisolak said the health districts have the burden of ensuring they are eligible. He also said that individuals should take personal responsibility to abide by the rules.
“I do not stand in one of the vaccination lines to ask to see people’s IDs and where they work,” the governor said.
In response to this, Leguen said in a statement on Friday that because the health district “does not know the activities of each jurisdiction and does not know the different responsibilities of their employees”, it is up to each government to give responsible access to the vaccine.
Local governments began delivering vaccines in various phases last month, from public security workers to emergency services personnel, and then to emergency workers, local officials said.
Las Vegas councilor Olivia Diaz noted that city office workers are being asked to staff an isolation and quarantine complex for the homeless and act as ambassadors to ensure businesses comply with state rules, while parks and maintenance groups regularly have to disinfect city parks.
“I feel like our workers are here in the city,” said Diaz, who also sits on the health district council.
The health district has given about 450 doses to its 680 staff for the same reason, as employees could be appointed to roles such as staff testing and vaccination clinics, spokeswoman Jennifer Sizemore said.
Ethicists still question the fairness of vaccine deployment as members of the public face obstacles that government workers do not.
UNLV bioethicist Johan Bester has seen how difficult it is for the public’s problems to determine when they are eligible for the vaccine, and then to navigate online systems to make rare appointments.
It’s unfair if ‘people in the distribution system, government officials and so on, face fewer obstacles and it’s easier for them to access the vaccine,’ “Bester, an assistant professor and director of bioethics, told the UNLV School of Medicine, said. .
Many government workers also avoid the surrounding public scheduling system and long queues at public vaccination clinics. According to the city, for example, Las Vegas employees were vaccinated at the city’s Emergency Operations Center. In Henderson, some employees received the vaccine through a partnership with Community Ambulance at their headquarters, while other people went to the front and essential workers throughout the valley, Richards said.
As officials try to strike a balance between saving lives and supporting the functions needed to keep society going, Bester needs to do more to inform the public about the priority groups and to enable stakeholders to: to give their opinion.
“I’m thinking of … the 70-year-old senior citizen, alone at home with no one to help him work on the computer, and not knowing where to go,” Bester said. “Such a person, just because they are not connected to the system, should not have barriers to access to vaccines.”
“There is something wrong with this picture”
Sixty-nine-year-old Jane Law, who works as a babysitter, tried to make an appointment through the health district website, which she said was like “trying to get a ticket for a Paul McCartney concert.”
When she went to an appointment scheduled for her son at Western High School, she noticed that most people were middle-aged, with some as young as twenty.
“I thought, ‘There’s something wrong with this picture,'” she said.
Law felt she would be eligible to get a chance at the clinic, which vaccinated eligible eligible front-end workers, who are also children in childcare. Despite producing her paychecks, she was turned down because she did not work for a childcare business.
“My bottle went to waste, or it was given to whoever was standing outside just at the end of the day,” she said. “That’s what makes it so absurd.”
According to the GAAP, at least 32 states already offer vaccinations to those aged 65 to 69, while additional states offer shots to those with health conditions that put them at high risk for COVID-19 complications.
It remains unclear when vaccine will be widely available for this age group in Nevada. According to data on the health district’s website, 43 percent of the vaccine in Clark County received those 70 years of age and older.
Brice, the Henderson woman with a bad heart, does not care that medical workers and certain other essential workers are at the forefront of the line. ‘But it seems to be a little out of control’, while young people working from home give shots.
‘I have a plastic device in my heart. I had heart surgery three years ago. So I was petrified to go outside, ”she said. “And at this point, I’m just waiting very impatiently to get my chance in Nevada.”
Contact Shea Johnson at [email protected] or 702-383-0272. Follow @Shea_LVRJ on Twitter. Contact Mary Hynes at [email protected]. Follow @ MaryHynes1 on Twitter. Review Journal staff writer Blake Apgar contributed to this report.