Sterling Governance

"Canada's vaccine rollout has been glacial. [The] federal government was late to procure vaccines, and although it overcompensated by mass-purchasing vaccines from virtually all providers, [Canada is] too far down most providers' lists to get supplies quickly. That is why [Canada is] scheduled to have only 2.6 million vaccines by the end of February, which represents enough jabs for seven percent of the country."

"In comparison, the UAE passed the seven percent figure on December 26, and Israel passed that mark on December 29."

"Provinces have also dropped the ball. Ontario, for example, made the mistake of pausing vaccinations over the Christmas break, as if the virus has any regard for our holiday schedule."

"As of Monday [Canada] was vaccinating approximately 24 times slower than Israel, 14 times slower than the U.S., 2.3 times slower than Denmark, 2.3 times slower than the U.K., 1.6 times slower than Iceland, 1.2 times slower than Italy, and 1.1 times slower than Slovenia. If the trend continues, almost all of Europe could pass Canada within the next seven to ten days."

David Clement, North American affairs manager, Consumer Choice Center

 

"Psychologically, yes, it was a beacon of hope."

"A lot of people are looking to us as a state, because after the first week we had, I believe, something like 90% of doses allocated to our state in arms — which was really unheard of elsewhere."

"We have a lot of independent pharmacies or smaller pharmacies that are in the more rural communities, so in order to get the vaccine out to some of those areas, we needed to follow something a little bit different."

Gretchen Garofoli, clinical associate professor of pharmacy, West Virginia University

Gov. Jim Justice joined West Virginia health leaders and other officials for his latest daily press briefing regarding the State’s COVID-19 response.  Office of the Governor

For a success story, one has only to look next door, to one of the poorest and most rural states in the United States; West Virginia. The state chose to set aside participation in the U.S. federal Operation Warp Speed recommendations. And that decision is a major clue to its success in managing to vaccinate a large number of its most COVID-19-infectious residents. Which has led the Mountain State to wind up as a leader in rolling out the vaccine for COVID-19.

 

It has managed to deliver a vaccine to each individual currently in residence at a West Virginia long-term care home. Anyone who wanted to be inoculated in each of West Virginia's 214 long-term care homes has been vaccinated. So successful has West Virginia's rollout been that it will be prepared to begin the vaccination of teachers and school staff in the coming week. 

And it was managed through a more simple and direct expedient than the federal government's recommended rollout through the two main vaccine facilitators, CVS and Walgreen's. The state decided rather to decentralize as much as conceivably possible, partnering with hundreds of pharmacies -- independent and chain alike, in the mission to deliver and administer the vaccines throughout long-term care homes.

Those pharmacies equipped with enough cold storage and backup generators became part of the mobilizing team that resulted in a hub-and-spoke model tasking each pharmacy with making certain that local long-term care vaccinations took place expeditiously. It took those pharmacies a mere two weeks to render every long-term care resident their first dose of the vaccine, allowing for the state to realize its goal through its dynamic initiative, resulting in a rollout 50 percent exceeding its time-goal.

Canada couldn't do better than following the West Virginia example; uncomplicated and efficient. Pharmacies to be called on along with health-care providers in a bid to design a similar program to enable the exhaustion of the supply of vaccines quickly and safely. Anyone in the field of health-care qualified to give an injection should be brought on board, given authorization to administer the COVID-19 vaccine. This route would lead to a myriad of access points, in turn ensuring the job is done.

In West Virginia, Dr,Clay Marsh, the state's 'COVID Czar' responded: "Give us more vaccines", when he was asked what Washington could do to help. West Virginia looked at the situation, assessed it in the most practical manner possible and arrived at their plan of action; one not out-rivalled yet by any other enterprising state determined to shelter their populations from the ravages of the virus that has caused a global pandemic.

On Dec. 14, West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice was one of the first U.S. elected officials to get immunized against COVID-19. The state has since completed a first round of shots in all long-term care facilities as well as with front-line health workers.  State of West Virginia/Via AP