Why So Busy?

For the past 3 days I have been volunteering with the Medical Reserve Corps (MRC) at the First Responder Vaccine POD Clinics. (POD = Point of Dispensing) All of these are closed PODs, meaning they are not open to the general public; as their name implies, these were for first responders. Tuesday was the first one in the state and made the news; the Mayor held a press conference at the POD site and the HPD Chief & HFD Chief were seen in the media receiving their 1st dose of the vaccine. They will be back some time around January 19th for the 2nd dose. 

Fire Chief Neves getting vaccinated.

Police Chief Ballard getting vaccinated.

 

On Tuesday there were 570 people vaccinated, Wednesday 540, and Thursday 740; a total of 1850 doses were administered. The vaccines have different requirements for keeping frozen until just before use; the Moderna vaccine can be held frozen at regular freezer temperatures unlike the Pfizer vaccine which must be kept ultra-cold. After thawing, the Moderna vaccine can also be stored in refrigeration for a longer period and at room temperature for a longer period without degrading than the Pfizer vaccine. Because the vaccine PODs were being held at a community college, we used the Moderna vaccine; the Pfizer vaccines are being used at the larger hospitals which have the necessary equipment to handle the ultra-cold temperatures. Near the end of the day, when there were few first responders coming in for vaccination, they would come around to the volunteers looking for people to get a shot to use up the doses in an open vial since they could not keep it until the next day; there are 10 doses in each Moderna vial & they did not want to waste any doses. I got my first dose on Wednesday, a Christmas eve present. (The VAMS database has a place to log how many doses are wasted when a vaccination has been given.)

Handling requirements for the Moderna vaccine.

That seemed a little higher on my arm than when I got the flu shot.

Initially, I was one of the line monitors at the registration area. Our job was to move people along to one of the open registration tables; there were 8. We were also to remind people about proper distancing and proper mask wearing. About 15 minutes after the clinic opened up I was reassigned to work in data entry; I did that for the 3 days. It turned out data entry did not really get started until about 9:30 due to the timing of when registration opened (9 am), having the people get vaccinated, & paperwork being checked at the vaccine stations before being run over to the data entry room. We did end up staying later than other volunteers since the last registrations were allowed up until 3 pm with all shots being completed by 3:30 pm so things could be wrapped up by 4 pm. On Tuesday data entry volunteers were there until about 4:30, on Wednesday until a little after 5 pm, and Thursday until about 4:15; fortunately we finally got the bugs worked out by Thursday so we could efficiently handle the 740 vaccinations that day! It should go even smoother next week.

All the vaccination information collected was entered into the CDC's new Vaccine Administration Management System (VAMS). The system was specifically created to track when the vaccine is administered, who is getting it, what type and lot number each person receives, and when they are due back for the 2nd shot among other things. The database will also help track adverse reactions. Data must be entered on a daily basis so it gives the CDC a fairly robust idea of how many people are being vaccinated every day and with which vaccine.

I was originally signed up to work the PODs next Monday, Tuesday, & Wednesday; but got word later in the day that I will not be needed. I think they are rotating other fresh volunteers in so if people are needed to take shots so doses are not wasted they will be available. Which means I will be available for the last week of work with OmniTrack on doing first calls to COVID-19 positive cases. Their contract goes until December 30th; they are not sure if it will be extended since there is a new Mayor that is coming in on January 5th. (Their contract is with the City & County which is paying the bill for us to do the work on behalf of the State Department of Health.)

Over the past 3 days the 7-day average of new cases on Oʻahu has consistently hovered a little over 100 cases; it has been that way for about a week now. The number for the 7-day average for Oʻahu in order to determine what tier we should be at was modified today; from tomorrow inmate cases will no longer be included, however, they are still counted in the statewide daily number. The reasoning was that inmates are not in the population at large so they are unable to spread the virus to the community; guards & other corrections staff are still included in the daily count.

Numbers for state slowly climbed to a 129 over the 3 days. A lot are coming from the Halawa Correctional Facility; this is the 2nd wave of subsequent infections from the 1st round of infections seen a couple weeks ago. It is one of the reasons the Mayor wanted to exclude the inmate numbers from the case count to be used to move towards reopening.

Hauʻoli la Hānau e Vernon! Me ka Hauʻoli mahope lā Hānau e Noel, Rae, Jody, & Mariangela!