Raleigh, North Carolina – Gov. Roy Cooper mobilized the North Carolina National Guard on Tuesday to speed up the deployment of state vaccines.
“Ensuring that COVID-19 vaccines are delivered quickly is now our top priority,” Cooper tweeted. “We will use all the resources and personnel we need. I have mobilized the NC National Guard to support local health care providers as we continue to increase the pace of vaccinations.”
North Carolina has one of the lowest vaccine administration rates in the country, according to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The slow deployment of vaccines is not simply a North Carolina phenomenon and several health experts have criticized the vaccine operation across the country.
“The United States has really missed the vaccine launch,” Eric Feigl-Ding, an epidemiologist who recently left Harvard University for the Federation of American Scientists, said on Twitter on Monday. “Only 4 million shots were administered in one month, despite the promise of 20 million by the end of 2020. The U.S. needs to administer between 7 and 10 million vaccines a week.”
But the process has been particularly slow in North Carolina, according to data released by the CDC. As of Tuesday, the CDC said North Carolina had 498,450 doses delivered and had administered 121,881. The state’s vaccination rate per 100,000 people made North Carolina the 12th slowest state in the country.
“Although a vaccine was created earlier than planned, the state had months to prepare a distribution plan. It is inexcusable that the vaccines will sit on the shelf for as long as they have,” said Lauren Horsch, spokeswoman for the Senate President, Pro Tem, Phil Berger. . “It’s good that the governor is aware of this and plans to mobilize the National Guard. We are waiting to see if there is a plan behind this announcement.”
Cooper’s passing comes two days after state Rep. Billy Richardson, D-Cumberland, asked Cooper to ask for National Guard assistance.
“The number of North Carolinians who hire Covid on a daily basis is staggering and the slow distribution of vaccines is disturbing,” Richardson wrote in his letter. “Now is the time to act quickly and with a renewed commitment to bipartisan results.”
The letter states that 26 states planned to mobilize their guard units to help distribute vaccines, a figure reported by the Department of Defense’s National Guard Office in mid-December.
The figure may be lower now. An office spokeswoman told WRAL News on Tuesday that seven states are using National Guard units to provide some kind of support, but added that it may not be a full count.
Richardson said it is “not advisable” for hospitals and other medical providers to already have problems with the increase in coronavirus patients to manage vaccination logistics as well.
“What we should do is use the various resources of the state and the nation to help the health care system do what they do best,” he said.
“There are those who can really help vaccinate; some will help with logistics and other things,” Dr. Mandy Cohen, secretary of the state Department of Health and Human Services, said about National Guard assistance.
Richardson also asked General Assembly leaders to return to the session on vaccine-related issues, or at least be ready for action on the first day of a legislative session that was already scheduled to begin next week.
It was not specified exactly what legislation might be needed, but Richardson said the state should “train and fund our national guard to overcome the obstacles that currently prevent the effective and rapid delivery of vaccines to our citizens.”
“The day we swear, we get to work,” Richardson told WRAL News. “When we focus on a specific problem, magic happens.”
The legislature should focus on solutions rather than deployment problems, he said. But a legislative oversight committee already plans to delve deeper into the vaccine distribution effort during a meeting next week.
“This is unprecedented and we will make mistakes,” Richardson said.