Letter: To help with vaccinations, stop tying the hands of medical volunteers
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Kenley Hansen gets a COVID-19 vaccination from Kirsten Weber, as Utah County residents lined up for vaccinations in a former Shopko store in Spanish Fork, Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021.
By Doreen Kulikowski | The Public Forum
| Feb. 12, 2021, 1:00 p.m.
I am a retired pharmacist who worked at the Veterans’ Administration for over 30 years.
Since I worked for the federal government, I needed to maintain my original professional licensure in my home state of Connecticut and did not require Utah licensure.
As a volunteer with the Medical Reserve Corp helping during this pandemic, I am not allowed by the state of Utah to prepare a COVID-19 vaccine dose or provide immunization, since I do not have a professional Utah license.
Vaccines have been proven to almost eradicate deadly and debilitating diseases such as smallpox and polio.Â
So, one can imagine how excited and hopeful I am that we have achieved a miracle in our work to end COVID-19 pandemic â a vaccine!Â
Vaccine manufacturers, under Operation Warp Speed, defied the odds and have given us two safe and very effective vaccines in record time.
Both the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines utilize new mRNA technology and are shown to be around 95 percent effective after the second dose.Â
The mRNA technology has never been used in any previous vaccines, but the science is not new.
The
San Francisco Chronicle ran an excellent article on Sunday, January 31 about the failure of the California Public Health Department (CDPH) to abide by state law requiring the agency to disclose information about COVID-19 outbreaks in the workplace, and about the failure of county public health departments, including San Francisco, to disclose information about workplace outbreaks.
Of course the
Chronicle consigned this article to the business section, when it really belonged on the front page above the fold. And the reporters, Chase DiFeliciantonio and Shwanika Narayan, were a bit hobbled by the need to be “objective” and allow both sides to get their say, as if there is a side that has some reasonable excuse for hiding COVID-19 outbreaks from you and me.
District 2 Public Health Departments are working with community partners to move COVID-19 vaccine clinics to larger spaces.
According to a press release from District 2 Public Health, this move will allow the vaccination of both the first and second doses at a single location.
“Having a larger space than the health departments, will also give us flexibility to vaccinate more people each day, especially when [the] vaccine becomes more readily available,” said Zachary Taylor, M.D., District Health Director in a prepared statement.
Appointments will still be required to get vaccinated at the new clinic sites. Essential services such as immunizations for school, women’s health services and communicable disease services will be available at the health departments.
Missouri Republicans want to limit power of health officials
Lexi Sutter - 41 Action News p The Missouri Capitol in Jefferson City. /p
and last updated 2021-01-20 19:06:17-05
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. â Republican senators in Missouri are trying to check health officials power in response to their handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Senate health committee members debated a bill Wednesday that would ensure there are no government-imposed occupancy limits on churches and other places of worship during public health emergencies.
Other bills would take the power to make public health rules away from county health boards and instead leave it up to county commissioners.