The Journal posed a number of questions to Pierce County Public Health Director AZ Snyder on the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Questions from John McLoone from The Journal appear bold, with Snyder’s responses following. We thank her for continuing to keep readers of The Journal and county residents informed.

I’ve had several requests from people on a timeline for vaccines. Has one been put together for Pierce County as of yet and what does it look like?

The timeline for who is vaccinated when is up to the state health department. We put together a best guess (see chart on page 3) based on

what the state has told us. The populations in each phase do change regularly based on state and federal decisions. We need residents to understand that there are limited supplies of vaccines, and it will take months, not weeks, to vaccinate some populations, like those over 65. We also need to be careful in overcommitting our resources on first doses, because we need to be able to follow up with second doses while continuing to move on to new populations with the first doses._ When would Pierce County teachers be vaccinated and does that include all school staff?

When school staff can be vaccinated is up to the state. They have not provided a timeline or specifics on eligibility to local health departments for this group yet. Pierce County Public Health has been working with each school district on plans to vaccinate their staff. We are well-practiced at vaccinating in schools, as we do flu clinics in each district every year._

It was brought up at a meeting this week that the state is controlling when each county moves to the next “phase” and that each county can’t move until all counties are ready? Is that correct?

That is correct. The state of WI is committed to moving together as a state. While this is frustrating at times, the state is attempting to take an equitable approach to allow resources to be deployed to places that may be going slower._

How many doses of vaccine was Pierce County allocated?

Pierce County Public Health has been allocated around 500 vaccines so far._

Where is the county currently at as far as who is being vaccinated?

Pierce County, along with our nearby healthcare systems, have vaccinated most frontline healthcare workers who_ wanted a_vaccine. This includes doctors, nurses, dentists and hygienists, pharmacists,_ optometrists, personal care and nursing assistants, physical, occupational and speech therapists, mental health providers, school health staff, etc. Pierce County held three vaccination clinics for healthcare_workers who couldn't get vaccines through their employers. We are working closely with local_hospitals to refer any healthcare workers we identify as needing a vaccine_ after this week. Public Health will start vaccinating law enforcement and firefighters this week. The federal pharmacy program is responsible for vaccinating staff and residents of long term care facilities. So far, three Pierce County facilities have received their first dose. There are 19 Pierce County facilities in the program. This federal program will need several months to cover all Pierce County facilities._

How many people have been vaccinated?

961 Pierce County residents have been vaccinated as of 1/15 with their first dose.

When do you see the general vaccination process being completed? Is it on the pace you would hope for?

How quickly the process goes depends on so many factors, including residents' willingness to take the vaccine. I imagine that it will take most of 2021 to vaccinate everyone in Pierce County who wants a vaccine. People have asked me why we can't vaccinate people seven days a week, 10 hours a day. We simply don't have enough vaccine_to vaccinate in that manner yet. We also don't have an unlimited workforce to provide vaccine. We are hoping that vaccine will become more widely available to providers in the coming months, and that we are able to continue building our network of volunteer medical providers to help staff mass clinics. If you are a nurse or physician, and are interested in volunteering to help administer vaccines for Pierce County, please email me at [email protected]_

What’s your advice to county residents on continuing to stay vigilant with COVID

precautions?

Vaccinating targeted populations is going to take months. A rise in cases will make it even harder for Pierce County and healthcare partners to quickly vaccinate the population, as we must battle the consequences of disease and the logistics_of vaccinating at the same time. I don't want Pierce County residents to die waiting for a vaccine because we let our_guard down as a community. I am pleading with the public to please avoid situations that put them at high risk for infection. Each of us taking responsibility for protecting ourselves and those around us will help us allocate more resources to the vaccinating process and less to disease investigation and caring for the critically_ill._ ***

Board of Health

At its December meeting, Pierce County Board of Health members got an update on COVID-19 matters.

Here are minutes of that meeting.

COVID-19 situational update

•Mass Gathering advisory and enforcement update – for the most part businesses are following the 25% capacity limitation set forth in the advisory. Only one business is knowingly ignoring the recommendation. Public Health staff are in contact with the business owner and trying to convince the owner to comply with the advisory.

The twenty-fiver percent capacity limitation converts to 113 square feet per person if no maximum capacity limit is known. If law enforcement witnesses non-compliance, a written request will be given to the business, if they still do not adhere to the advisory recommendations, a court order would be the next step to achieve compliance.

•National Guard testing site update – Pierce County has received approval for the National Guard testing site at Pierce Pepin to continue through March 2021.

•Vaccine distribution planning update – A. Snyder and D. H-Robinson have been working with the State Health Department to develop plans for administering COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available. The initial vaccine that will be distributed is the Pfizer vaccine which is a two- dose series and needs to be stored at minus 70 degrees will be distributed in a very limited supply to approved vaccinators. The Moderna vaccine can be stored at minus 20 degrees Celsius, which means the vaccine refrigerator/freezer unit already in place here at the department is sufficient to store the vaccine.

The single dose vaccine is not expected to be available until later in 2021.

Pierce County Public health will be focusing on administering of the vaccine to EMS workers not affiliated with a larger health entity and staff at long-term care facilities that haven’t signed an agreement with another approved vaccine administrator.

It was brought to the Board’s attention that State Board of Public Health has determined that 11.5 million doses of vaccine would be required to immunize 90% of the population in the hopes of creating herd immunity.

Discussion on herd immunity and the number of recovered COVID-19 cases in Pierce County took place. To date approximately five percent of the county has recovered from coronavirus since the onset in early March 2020. It is still unknown how long immunity lasts and what percentage of the population could experience reinfection. There is not enough information available yet to determine how long immunity will last after vaccination.

Information on two legislative bills that have been proposed were discussed. One bill wants to prohibit a local health officer (LHO) from being allowed to close any business. The second bill deals with requiring a person to be vaccinated. Only the state health officer would have the authority to require vaccination. Board members were encouraged to contact their legislators opposing the bills.