Both were vaccinated, despite only one of them being eligible for the priority groups established by Texas state health officials.
“I’ve usually sent them to get vaccines to protect me and for the sake of our newborn baby ever since [my husband] tends to see more friends, ”said the 37-year-old woman, who asked for anonymity for fear of public retaliation.
Tensions over so-called “line jumpers” are high as Texas seeks to vaccinate the majority of its 29 million residents, reduce deaths and hospitalizations, and stop the spread of the virus among highly vulnerable communities of color. reports the Texas Tribune.
Under current state guidelines, recipients must be 65 years of age or older, a primary health worker, working as a teacher or child caregiver, or medically frail and over 15 years of age. About 4.3 million people in Texas – or about 14% of the state’s population – have received at least one dose. According to Texas guidelines, between 10 and 13 million people are eligible for the vaccine, said Lara Anton, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services.
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Anton said that if a health care provider has access to a recipient’s medical records – for example, if the person is an existing patient – they can be used to verify a person’s medical fitness, but it is not providers under state health guidelines. allowed to require recipients to prove a medical condition.
She added that the state does not want to make it more difficult for people to get the injection by requiring them to provide medical records.
“We don’t want to put up barriers that prevent people from getting vaccinated, and every person who gets vaccinated slows down the spread of the disease and relieves pressure on the hospital system,” said Anton.
While many healthcare providers say that, based on anecdotal evidence and state data, they believe that most people who receive the vaccine are eligible, they recognize that it is difficult to confirm their eligibility and to enforce requirements that are older than the age of a person if there is no medical record to check. Many qualifying conditions, such as diabetes or sickle cell anemia, cannot be easily confirmed without them.
As a result, providers operate largely on the honor system. And of backlash about an elderly Texas state senator who got his vaccine before his age group became eligible for reports of young, seemingly healthy students lining up to take photos on campus with little more than a student ID, anecdotally shows prove that not everyone follows.
“The ethical thing to do is wait for your turn, even though I know it’s frustrating for a lot of people,” said Allison Winnike, president and CEO of The Immunization Partnership, a statewide nonprofit that focuses on to eradicate vaccines that can be prevented. diseases.
Quantifying the incidents and impact of line jumpers is impossible, officials say. The state also does not keep track of how many people are on waiting lists for the vaccine, because Texas has more than 1,500 vaccine suppliers, each has a different system, and some people are on multiple waiting lists at the same time.
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Anton said providers have not reported having problems with ineligible people overtaking the priority groups, but if a provider indicates they want to do this on the ground, “we will contact them immediately and explain that they will not people are allowed to vaccinate outside of those groups. “
Once Texas has expanded admission requirements to include more people and likely key workers, a move expected later this month, giving shots to people who are unqualified will have less of an impact, Winnike said.
“If you keep opening up, there are more options for line jumping, but less reason,” said Winnike. “At some point it will hardly be relevant anymore.”
An ‘ethical gray area’
The headlines in Texas and across the country tell of the battle between the qualified and the unqualified.
States like New York struggle to vaccinate people of color, while white residents line up at vaccination centers targeting communities of color. Reports of people crossing state and county lines to get vaccinated caused restrictions in Florida. Social media is full of personal stories of people who are either given the opportunity to get their turn or complain angrily about seemingly ineligible people getting vaccines while people have priority on waiting lists.
Half of all Texans 65 and older have received at least one dose, which accounts for nearly 2 million people and nearly half of all doses administered in Texas, according to DSHS numbers. The elderly, who make up about 13% of the Texas population, are most likely to be hospitalized and die from the virus.
In Austin, more than half a million people meet the eligibility requirements, and about 200,000 have been pre-registered through the Austin Public Health system and are still waiting, an APH spokesperson said in an emailed statement. According to state health officials, approximately 167,000 people have received at least one dose at Travis County sites.
Line jumping is “an unfortunate reality for many providers,” but “generally we’re trying to achieve herd immunity and a shot in the arm is good for the whole community,” said the spokesperson.
“We want to give priority to our most vulnerable who may be most affected by the virus,” the spokesman added. “Instead of jumping over the line, help a senior enroll in the vaccine.”
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Registration failures have occurred in several states, including Texas, allowing thousands of ineligible people to bypass priority guidelines and register for appointments or show up on a walk-in basis at major vaccination events to take a photo. for which they were not yet eligible, according to reports.
At the University of Texas at Austin, an online appointment registration link through UT Health Austin was “inappropriately shared” in late February, leading people to mistakenly believe they were qualified and signing up for admission, officials said. Officials later canceled most of those appointments.
“Everyone is fighting the same bugs in the system,” said Jen Stratton, communications director of Family Hospital Systems in Williamson County, which is working with the county to run a vaccination center. “I don’t know of any hub in this country that had no problem with people getting links they might not have had.
“There’s no right answer,” Stratton added. “We try so hard to make sure the right people get it [the vaccine] at the right time. And we understand the frustration, and we understand the perception. And we just ask for patience. “
Use every shot
Faced with an attempt to vaccinate against a virus that killed nearly 45,000 people in Texas in the past year, health care providers are juggling the cost of vaccinating some who are not qualified against the benefit of getting as many Texans as possible vaccinated.
In some cases, injections are given to ineligible people because providers don’t want to waste vaccine doses when eligible people cancel or miss their appointments or because not enough eligible people show up on a vaccination ride. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines must be used within a certain period of time after the seal has been broken.
When that happens, healthcare providers have to choose between vaccinating someone who doesn’t belong to a priority group or throwing away a precious dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, which is already in short supply. Most seem to follow the recommendations of state and state health officials to give the shot to those who don’t meet the admission guidelines if it prevents doses from being wasted – even if providers are criticized for vaccinating people outside of admission guidelines.
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“It’s the ultimate Catch-22,” said Stratton.
The 37-year-old Austin mother, who feared for her newborn baby if she or the baby got COVID-19, acknowledged that the family’s decision to vaccinate her healthy young husband is “ an ethical gray area ” that could lead to to backlash from family members or the public if they shared it on social media.
“But here’s what I know now,” she said. ‘I know if I’m going to get sick, he [my husband] whether my mother could take care of my baby in the same household … I didn’t feel good about the decision. But I was like, I’m going to make it anyway because your maternal instincts kick in and you just think, ‘No, I’ll do anything to protect my baby.’ ”
Disclosure: The University of Texas at Austin is a financial supporter of The Texas Tribune, a non-profit, unbiased news organization funded in part by donations from members, foundations, and corporate sponsors. Financial supporters play no part in the Tribune’s journalism. Find a full list here.
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