Millions in funds coming for overwhelmed COVID vaccine program in MS months after request
As elderly residents stand in a long line Friday morning for COVID-19 vaccinations in D’Iberville, the federal government is just now sending money to help cover the state’s cost for ramping up the inoculation program.
Coast hospitals — Gulfport-based Memorial Hospital and Singing River Health System based in Jackson County — have led the way with vaccinations in South Mississippi as doses are shipped directly to them weekly without going through Mississippi State Department of Health.
State Health Officer Dr. Thomas Dobbs of the MSDH and medical chiefs nationwide have been saying for months that the states would need funding to ramp up vaccination programs. Dobbs recently said Mississippi would need $17 million.
The funding comes at a time when COVID-19 cases hit new records in Mississippi and the health care system scrambles for beds and staff to care for patients.
Mississippi should receive its vaccine money — $26.8 million — by Jan. 19, according to the office of U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith. Smith’s office said the state is receiving a total of $171.3 million, with other Centers for Disease Control and Prevention funds going for testing, contact tracing and COVID-19 suppression.
Her office did not immediately respond to questions about why the money wasn’t forthcoming sooner.
COVID vaccine availability expected to improve
Meanwhile, the MSDH is booking appointments on a telephone line that is understaffed and overwhelmed with calls for 18 drive-thru clinics statewide. Only four clinics are open in South Mississippi and only one, in Jackson County, had a few appointments available next week when the Sun Herald checked the website Friday morning.
Memorial is vaccinating residents on a first-come, first-served basis at its clinics, while Singing River Health System is setting up appointments over the telephone at 228-809-5555 and, for patients with existing accounts, on its website.
At the Memorial clinic site operating Friday, the D’berville Senior Citizen Center on Lamey Bridge Road, about 40 to 50 people waited in line for COVID-19 vaccinations. Many of them gripped walkers, and with temperatures in the mid-40s, stood less than 6 feet apart, the recommended distance to avoid spread.
Later in the morning, Memorial reported that more than 400 vaccines were administered in two hours and there was no waiting time for a shot, with the process “moving swiftly.”
The good news, Dobbs says, is that the pipeline should open for more vaccinations and appointments as private clinics and pharmacies sign up to offer vaccines and more workers are hired to staff the MSDH phone line.
Dobbs also has said that appointments should open up by the third week in January for those who are 65 and older. About 400,000 of the state’s 3 million residents fall into the 65+ age category.
Vaccine rollout has been difficult nationwide.
Epidemiologist Caitlin Rivers, who is on the faculty at Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security, wrote on Twitter Friday morning:
“States have said for months that they need funding for vaccine distribution. It was only in the recent bill, signed weeks after the first vaccine was authorized, that money was allocated.
“Surely one reason that rollout is bumpy. Underfunding public health is never a good buy.”
Another epidemioligist, Peter Hotez of Baylor University, told The Atlantic magazine:
“Our last hope now is to vaccinate our way out of this, and there is no plan to vaccinate the American people. We have to make it an incredibly simplified system. And we have to communicate to the American people. Because that is not happening now.”
Staff Writer Mary Perez contributed to this report.
This story was originally published January 8, 2021 at 11:20 AM.
