Federal authorities entered Shelby County, Tennessee, this week as mismanaged disasters plagued the local deployment of the coronavirus vaccine reached boiling point.
The county health department allowed more than 2,000 doses to be dispensed, two children were vaccinated against the guidelines of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and a volunteer allegedly removed from a single dose. The Tennessee Department of Health, the FBI and the CDC are investigating now. The head of Shelby’s health department, Alisa Haushalter, resigned on Friday.
Now residents are wondering if the doses they received were expired doses.
“You start to feel safe going out to do things, but now you don’t know if you’re covered or not. You don’t know if the shot you got is effective or not, ”said Gayle Jones, 80, who was born and raised in Córdoba, Tennessee. He received his second shot of the Pfizer vaccine on Wednesday. “We lost a whole year staying at home. We finally felt we could get out and maybe be okay. “
Hundreds of people echo his statements on Facebook in comments about county health department bulletins.
Ingrid Chilton, 68, unleashed her frustration under a message: “We are talking about thousands of Memphians who do not know if they have been vaccinated properly since the thawing of vaccines was not done according to CDC guidelines. “.
Chilton and her husband, 75, flew from their home in Tiburon, California, to visit their son in downtown Memphis for two weeks in late February 2020. They have been living in the same clothes for two years. weeks. . Saturday would be the day they achieved full immunity, two weeks after their second shots at Pfizer. She and her husband had begun arguing over when they would return to Tiburon.
“Today was the day I was supposed to celebrate, such as‘ We are free! “And instead, we get that. I have a feeling we’re back on track,” he told The Daily Beast.
The state began investigating the county health department last week after an announcement that the county had allowed 1,300 doses to expire in February. State researchers found that, in fact, 2,400 doses had gone wrong this month and had been destroyed, with 840 wasted in one day, on February 15th. the Tennessee reported.
In addition to residents ’fears, some doses have disappeared. State Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey told a news conference Friday that 12 syringes had expired during a Feb. 23 vaccination event, but no one had returned them to the dispensing pharmacy. Doses continue to be ignored.
“There seems to be a lack of responsibility and, in a sense, leadership, which has certainly harmed some people and withheld the vaccine from people who needed it,” Piercey said.
Jones hoped to feel safe attending the births of two great-grandchildren soon. He thinks he will still go there, though now with feelings of uncertainty and risk. Her daughter, son and two of her grandchildren have had COVID-19. A granddaughter and a granddaughter are pregnant and working in the health field.
“It simply came to our notice then. I don’t know if they will be able to prove if the vaccine we received was real or effective or not, “he said.
Chilton will postpone his trip until the investigation into the vaccination effort is complete.
“I don’t know if we will ever know exactly whether we are protected or not,” he said.
The Memphis City Health Department has taken on county-wide vaccination efforts.
In addition to its procedural problems, the vaccination effort has suffered an alleged theft. The state notified the FBI on Thursday that a volunteer allegedly stole doses of vaccine on Feb. 3, according to Piercey. The state health commissioner said the city had not received information on the disappearance of the doses, which led to a delay of almost a month in reporting them. Shelby County Administrative Director Dwan Gilliom said Piercey was wrong and law enforcement had been informed but had not been arrested.
Two children were vaccinated in Shelby County also Feb. 3, according to Piercey. Neither the Modern vaccine nor the Pfizer vaccine are approved for children under 16, as the drug has only been tested in adults.
The disaster has further eroded Jones ’already cratered confidence in local government, which has struggled to pick up rubbish and supply water to residents in recent weeks.
“They just need to meet with the Memphis government. They’re totally unreliable, “Jones said.” We just boiled the water for 8 days because the whole power grid broke. You just have to think, “Oh God, can’t you do anything?”
Chilton feels the same way.
“I don’t think my feelings towards the county and state health department are adequate for print, frankly,” he said.