COVID vaccination restarted in Hamilton
Hamilton's mobile COVID-19 clinic has started vaccinating residents of seniors' homes again.
The clinic was at Idlewyld Manor on Sunday to give out second doses and inoculate those who were missed the first time around. It visited St. Peter's Residence at Chedoke and Hamilton Continuing Care on Monday.
The fixed-site clinic at Hamilton Health Sciences isn't expected to open again until at least Feb. 10 after shortages of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine forced it to temporarily close Jan. 27.
There is still no breakdown of the more than 19,200 doses given out in Hamilton, despite the Ministry of Health stating last Thursday it would start to provide comprehensive reports.
It's significant as questions are being raised about the rollout in Hamilton and who got vaccinated first.
Some dispute which retirement homes were left out, while others take issue with hospital staff evaluating for themselves which priority group they fit into. There's also objections to the lottery system used to prioritize the staff in the first group.
First in line was supposed to be residents, staff and essential caregivers of long-term care (LTC) and high-risk retirement homes.
But Hamilton can't say how many have been vaccinated already or the number still to go at the 39 highest priority homes.
Only retirement homes with an LTC home attached or a memory-care unit were included in the initial rollout.
There are retirement homes that don't fit this category which have had large and deadly outbreaks, such as Cardinal Retirement Residence, where 10 died over two outbreaks, and St. Elizabeth Retirement Residence, where 51 are infected and five have died in an ongoing outbreak since Dec. 25.
I certainly wish for the vaccine sooner than later for the seniors in St. Elizabeth's Village," said John (Lance) Pritchard, who has been advocating for the home to be added to the list. There is an urgent need for vaccine."
He described being angry and frustrated" at the rollout.
There are so many conflicting stories on how much vaccine is available and who ... will get it."
Hamilton will not say how much vaccine it has on hand or how much is coming citing a provincial gag order.
The guidance from the Ministry of the Solicitor General's security group noted that publicizing storage locations or inventory levels may pose a security risk, but the province maintains that public health units can disclose vaccine supplies at their discretion.
It's a significant issue considering vaccine will potentially be diverted to ensure residents of LTC homes and high-risk retirement homes in Ontario's hot spot are fully vaccinated - meaning two doses - by Feb. 5. It's not clear if Hamilton is among the hot spots included.
Residents in LTC and high-risk retirement homes are supposed to get their second doses of Pfizer within 27 days, but all others are stretched to as long as 42 days - which is double the recommended time.
Second doses of the Moderna vaccine are still being given out within the recommended 28 days.
The vaccination delays have only exacerbated questions about who has received immunizations already.
About 6,500 hospital workers at Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) and St. Joseph's Healthcare have been vaccinated. The hospitals say it went to front-line workers who are most at risk, particularly in COVID units, emergency departments and intensive-care units.
But documents obtained by The Spectator show the first priority group at St. Joseph's Healthcare was large and included consultants who don't work on these floors all the time. It also took in all adult general internal medicine units. In addition, all types of workers from these floors were included, such as clinical leaders, managers and educators.
The issue isn't the inclusion of so many in the first priority group, as it is the way the vaccine was given out. Instead of prioritizing those most likely to be in contact with COVID patients to go first, all in the group were put into a lottery, meaning consultants who visit the floor from time to time could have been immunized before staff working there full-time.
Neither HHS nor St. Joseph's would verify who was in the first priority group, but both have done the rollout in the same way.
HHS said in a statement the randomization tool" was designed to make access to vaccination within each group fair."
Another issue was that staff evaluated for themselves which priority group they should be put into. HHS and St. Joseph's have both said the majority placed themselves in the right sequences, but neither have said how many were wrongly vaccinated first or what jobs they do.
There is also no explanation of how the temporary hospital at 150 King St. E. in Effort Square was left out of the first priority group initially, considering it cares for those ready to be discharged from hospital - primarily seniors waiting for long-term care.
The satellite site currently has outbreaks on the second and sixth floor with 68 infected and one death.
It's now included in the first priority group at the request of Hamilton public health, but it's unknown how many have been vaccinated there.
The sequencing groups are constantly being reviewed with the aim to ensure that teams with the highest risk of workplace exposure get vaccinated first," HHS said in the statement. And following that, other hospital health-care workers will be sequenced based on the risk of their team or of their role."
Joanna Frketich is a Hamilton-based reporter covering health for The Spectator. Reach her via email: jfrketich@thespec.com