Texas, don’t cut COVID vaccines for DFW as feds step up to inoculate underserved
When the Republican Tarrant County judge and his Democratic counterpart in Dallas agree emphatically and urgently on something, attention is due.
Glen Whitley and Clay Jenkins are uniting to decry — and hopefully reverse — an unfair state decision on coronavirus vaccine distribution. They make compelling arguments that the action will harm efforts to reach herd immunity in the Dallas-Fort Worth region.
Here’s what’s happening: The Federal Emergency Management Agency is setting up three vaccine “mega-sites” in Texas to focus on inoculating underserved communities. The federal government is looking for experience to improve vaccination among minorities and low-income populations, and the counties (frankly, all of Texas) could use the help improving vaccination rates among those groups.
Jenkins and Whitley say that federal officials told them the shots would be an add-on. Texas health officials said not so fast, planning to cut the allocation of shots to the two counties by the number the feds provide.
The state Department of State Health Services decision seems logical at one level — with more vaccines coming in, why not spread the supply to other areas?
But as Whitley and Jenkins explain, federal grants aimed at helping specific populations are meant to be an add-on, not draw away from the overall effort. More than 1.2 million people already registered for shots will have to wait even longer, and the counties’ efforts to expand the infrastructure to distribute vaccines will be delayed.
“It’s a break with longstanding tradition,” Jenkins said, citing previous efforts to target tuberculosis and HIV. “When counties seek help for the underserved, the state does not change” the overall approach.
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Local vaccination efforts have had their stumbles, but they continue to improve, reaching more people, improving efficiency and preparing for what should soon be a much greater supply. But they haven’t had enough success reaching Black, Hispanic and poor communities. The FEMA program will unquestionably help.
As with so many disputes like this, it’s about control and differing priorities. Whitley said counties are “the ping pong ball on this whole thing. The Biden administration wants to raise vaccinations in certain segments; the state is saying, get it in as many arms as possible.”
Tarrant and Dallas counties can do both, if the state and federal governments will let them. And as the judges note, their counties are leading the effort for the entire region. Smaller surrounding jurisdictions may not have the infrastructure to run a big vaccination program. Their residents are often inoculated in the larger counties, and every shot moves us closer to herd immunity in the entire region.
There’s a whiff of politics here, too. Gov. Greg Abbott and the state GOP are increasingly dependent on rural communities for big vote totals to maintain their grip on power. And large, urban counties are often political antagonists for state Republican officeholders.
But Tarrant County is still up for grabs, and Republicans will have to win back more votes in the suburbs in years to come. Slighting the entire region isn’t the best idea.
All around, the news on COVID-19 is improving. Cases, hospitalizations and deaths have dropped dramatically in recent weeks. The number of completed vaccinations is steadily rising, and communities continue to improve distribution. Soon, major pharmacies will bring their workforces to bear, and if virus variants don’t cause new spikes, the end of the pandemic is truly in sight.
Now is not the time to slow down the momentum in big metropolitan areas. The focus remains on health care workers and those most vulnerable to COVID-19 because of age or health. But a boom in supply is coming, and Whitley and Jenkins encourage all residents to register so they can get in line for their shots.
The state should support, not punish, local efforts to work on reaching the communities that haven’t yet gotten the message or don’t trust it because of historical abuse by the healthcare system or government. Jenkins and Whitley are enlisting the help of powerful local lawmakers such as Sen. Jane Nelson to urge the state health department to reverse its decision. Dr. John Hellerstedt, the state health commissioner, and his staff must hear them and send more vaccines to Dallas-Fort Worth.
After all, as Jenkins said: “The way we get the economy back and protect life is to get herd immunity. We do that by vaccinating as many people as possible.”
This story was originally published February 24, 2021 at 1:32 PM.