Tarrant County tackling COVID surge with vaccine plan. Now, how about the rest of us?
Tarrant County residents should have confidence that the local COVID-19 vaccination effort will only improve in the coming weeks, thanks to a new partnership with the UNT Health Science Center. But the overall pandemic? Not so much. And that’s not only the government’s fault. It’s on all of us, too.
The health center has a broad mandate to spread and improve distribution of the vaccine. Its plans include drive-thru clinics, stepped-up outreach to underserved communities and better communication about the vaccination process, three important priorities for speeding distribution and reaching more parts of Tarrant County.
The county public health department has done a mostly admirable job in the early stages. After initial angst over long lines of people outside the only vaccine site, the county has expanded and improved the effort. And while no one thinks state and local governments’ performance has been good enough, the situation is much better in Texas than elsewhere.
Some states have bogged down trying to set highly specific priorities for who can get the shot in which order. Texas has employed much broader categories, and while that’s raised some eyebrows over whether people at less risk have jumped ahead of others who are more vulnerable, the priority is to vaccinate as many people as possible every single day.
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But the need now is to broaden to many more parts of the community. The job is huge, far beyond the county department’s capacities. Bringing in the UNT schools to coordinate and forge partnerships with other institutions, public and private, is the right step.
The county’s other vaccine-related announcement demonstrates the urgency of better outreach. The health department will move residents of 10 ZIP codes to the top of the priority list. Public health director Vinny Taneja said the chosen areas have the highest rates of cases.
But the virus is rampant just about everywhere in the county. It’s hard not to notice that most of the selected ZIP codes are in suburbs, especially north of Loop 820. It’s baffling to suggest that the city of Fort Worth — particularly minority communities that have borne a disproportionate share of the pandemic’s burden — should face further delays.
TARRANT LEADING IN CASES
The county should note, too, the harsh reaction of state health officials to Dallas County’s plan to limit vaccinations by ZIP code. Now is not the time for a distracting battle over geographic priorities.
These details seem to matter more every day because of the frightening state of the pandemic here. It seems worse every day, and Tarrant County has the ignominious distinction of leading the state in cases recently.
As we’ve noted, our leaders have fueled this by encouraging tourism for events such as the National Finals Rodeo and Rose Bowl game. It’s impossible to quantify the effect, but one thing we do know for sure is that whether locals or visitors, people aren’t doing enough to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Imagine if leaders of the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo hadn’t had the wisdom to cancel this year’s event. It was a painful blow to our civic pride, to be sure, but if not for that difficult choice, Tarrant County might be leading more than just Texas in new cases.
WEAR A MASK
Ten months in, most of us have grown exasperated with social restrictions and health precautions. It’s understandable, perhaps even inevitable. But the finish line is in sight; let the improvements in the vaccination effort be an inspiration to commit to masks, distancing and avoiding crowds and other gatherings.
Too many people have thrown up their hands, as if there’s nothing they can do but let fate decide if they become infected. Yes, some people take all the right precautions and still get sick. That doesn’t mean masks and distancing don’t work; it means the virus is rampant, and the more we all do to rein it in, the better.
More vaccines are coming. Let’s make sure more of us are around to get them.
This story was originally published January 21, 2021 at 9:50 AM.