Federal authorities rolled into Shelby County, Tennessee this week when the disasters over mismanagement plaguing the rollout of the local coronavirus vaccine hit a boiling point.
The county health department spoiled more than 2,000 doses, two children were vaccinated against Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines, and a volunteer allegedly walked off with doses from one site. The Tennessee Health Department, the FBI and the CDC are now investigating. Shelby’s health department head, Alisa Haushalter, resigned Friday.
Now residents wonder if the doses they received were expired doses.
‘You start to feel like you are safe to do things, but now you don’t know if you are covered or not. You don’t know if the shot you got is effective or not, ”said Gayle Jones, 80, born and raised in Cordova, Tennessee. She received her second injection of the Pfizer vaccine on Wednesday. “We missed a whole year by staying at home. We finally felt like we could get out and maybe be okay. “
Hundreds of people are repeating her statements on Facebook in responses to bulletins from the county’s health department.
Ingrid Chilton, 68, expressed her frustration under one message: “Let’s talk about the thousands of Memphians who don’t know if they have been properly vaccinated since the vaccines were not thawed in accordance with CDC guidelines!”
Chilton and her 75-year-old husband flew from their home in Tiburon, California in late February 2020 to visit their son in downtown Memphis for two weeks. They stayed for a year and live in the same clothes for two weeks. . Saturday would be the day they achieved full immunity, two weeks after their second Pfizer shots. She and her husband had begun to discuss when they would return to Tiburon.
“Today was the day I would celebrate like, ‘We’re free!’ and instead we get this. I feel like we’re in the dark again, ”she told The Daily Beast.
The state began an investigation into the county’s health department last week after an announcement that the county had allowed 1,300 doses to expire in February. State researchers found that in reality 2,400 doses had gone bad this month and were thrown away, with 840 wasted in one day, Feb. 15. Although the vaccines require ultra-cold storage to remain viable, some syringes felt warm to the touch of the investigator. the Tennessean reported.
In addition to the fears of the residents, some doses have disappeared. State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Lisa Piercey said in a news conference Friday that 12 syringes had expired during a vaccination event on Feb. 23, but no one had returned them to the dispensing pharmacy. Doses remain unrecorded.
“There seems to be a lack of accountability and, in a sense, leadership, which no doubt may have harmed some people and withheld vaccination from people who needed it,” Piercey said.
Jones had hoped to feel safe with the birth of two great-grandchildren who would soon be born. She thinks she will still go, albeit with feelings of insecurity and risk. Her daughter, her son, and two of her grandchildren have all had COVID-19. A granddaughter and a granddaughter are both pregnant and working in healthcare.
‘We will have to take it as it is. I don’t know if they can prove whether the vaccine we got was real and effective or not, ”she said.
Chilton will postpone her trip until the investigation of the vaccination effort is completed.
“I don’t know if we’ll ever know accurately whether we’re protected or not,” she said.
The Memphis Health Department has taken over the vaccination efforts for the entire county.
In addition to procedural woes, the vaccination effort has been linked to an alleged robbery. The state informed the FBI on Thursday that a volunteer had stolen vaccine doses on Feb. 3, according to Piercey. The public health commissioner said the city had not received any information about the doses disappearing, leading to a delay of nearly a month in reporting them. Shelby County Chief Administrative Officer Dwan Gilliom said Piercey was wrong and law enforcement had been notified but no arrests had been made.
According to Piercey, two children were also vaccinated in Shelby County on Feb. 3. Neither the Moderna nor the Pfizer vaccine is approved for anyone under the age of 16, as the medicine has only been tested on adults.
The mess has further eroded Jones’ already crating faith in the local government, which has struggled in recent weeks to collect waste and supply water to residents.
“They just need to get their affairs in order in the Memphis government. They are totally unreliable, ”said Jones. “We just let the water boil for 8 days because all mains power went out. It just makes you think, ‘Oh my god, can’t you do anything?’ “
Chilton feels the same.
“I honestly don’t think my feelings for the county and state health department are fit to be squeezed,” she said.