Douglas County #COVID-19 #Vaccine Update. It's another long thread, but there's important information about what may be missing doses that should be going to Douglas County, as well as Dr. @AdiPour's responses to some of my questions, so stick around to the end. 1/

Last week, I sent a letter calling on @GovRicketts, @NEDHHS CEO Dannette R. Smith, and Douglas County Health Director Dr. Adi Pour to answer Omahans’ questions about vaccine distribution in the state and in Douglas County. 2/

Dr. @AdiPour responded over the weekend and provided a lot helpful information, but we still don’t know whether Douglas County is getting its fair share of vaccine doses in the first place. 3/

Under the state’s population-based formula, Douglas County is entitled to approximately 29% of doses delivered to the state. Dr. Pour said that as of Saturday, February 13, Douglas County had received 78,640 vaccine doses. 4/

According to the most recent data available from the Nebraska DHHS COVID-19 vaccine dashboard, the state has received 408,405 total vaccine doses from the federal government. Of these, 317,875 were from the Federal COVID-19 Vaccine Program. 5/

Either way you calculate it, 78,640 isn’t anywhere close to the 29% percent Douglas County should be getting. 29% of the total doses delivered to Nebraska is 118,437, and 29% of the smaller number coming from the COVID-19 Vaccine Program is 92,183. 6/

Using these numbers, we’re missing at least 15%, but maybe 34%, of the vaccine doses that we’re supposed to be getting here in Douglas County. Even allowing for a possible reporting delay, that’s a lot of missing doses that should be going to Douglas County 7/

We need to be vaccinating people in that 1B group—people like teachers and utility workers—but we can’t vaccinate as many people if the state isn’t sending us all the doses we’re supposed to get. 8/

For this reason, I sent a public records request to Dannette R. Smith, @NEDHHS CEO, today, asking for information about the number of vaccine doses delivered to the state and to counties within the state under each of the different vaccine distribution programs. 9/

I talk to people all the time who have gotten sick from COVID, who have lost people close to them, and they’re worried. They want to know when they and their loved ones can get vaccinated, and they want to make sure the vaccine doses are being distributed in a fair way. 10/

The answers from Dr. Pour are below. She did not address whether Douglas County is getting all vaccine doses to which it is entitled. #1: Douglas County had received 78,640 doses as of Saturday, February 15. 11/

#2, per Dr. Pour: "Of these, 67,115 doses had been administered as of Saturday, “and we have today and tomorrow clinics with these doses and have some data entry delay since all the paperwork needs to be manually put into a system before it will be counted as administered." 12/

#2, cont.: "In addition, the DC dashboard only counts those that are DC residents (see at the bottom of the figure) and we know that we have administered about many thousands of vaccines in DC to non DC residents, i.e. healthcare workers, dentists, pharmacist, law enforcement,"13

#2, cont.: "paramedics, etc. that work in Douglas County in that occupation but are not DC residents. We are working with the data team to see how we can display it on our dashboard without it being too confusing but still be completely transparent.” 14/

Dr. Pour #3: “No doses have been wasted, no doses are sitting in a freezer. Every dose we get at the beginning of the week is accounted for to be administered at a clinic the same week.” 15/

Background for #4: Nebraska DHHS (not the county health department) has created subcategories for vaccine priority within 1B and 1C (for example, utility workers are listed before teachers). These categories are laid out here: https://dhhs.ne.gov/Documents/COVID-19-Vaccine-Phase-1B-Prioritization.pdf. 16/

#4: Dr. Pour says that she can't provide a more detailed timeline for when each subgroup will get the vaccine b/c “the supply of vaccine is not consistent and we all are hoping that new vaccines will be approved, . . . , and if that happens we will move forward much quicker.” 17/

#5. Dr. Pour says there are now 5 community sites: 144th & Millard, Christ Community Church, Immanuel Hospital, Kroc Center, Creighton Rasmussen Center. She says many pharmacies and federally qualified health centers will receive vaccines directly when more are available. 18/

Dr. Pour also says "At this time, these 5 community sites can easily handle more vaccine doses.“ She says these 5 sites are designed to make it easier for people across the city to access than one mass vaccination site. 19/

Finally, Dr. Pour notes that "We also have portable vaccine sites who are going to specific sites, such as the Housing Authority or the homeless shelters. This will expand. Once the weather gets warmer, drive-through sites will also be considered.” 20/

It sounds like Dr. @AdiPour are working hard to get vaccines to people in Douglas County, though it would be helpful for @HealthDouglasCo to find ways to communicate more of these details to public. I know they're very busy right now, but this is important. 21/

The big question is this: Is Douglas County getting all of the vaccines it's supposed to get? It seems like a stretch to attribute more than 13K missing vaccines to a reporting delay when we've received only 78,640 since December. 22/

I look forward to receiving the response to my records request and will share results when I do. 22/