Speaker 1: Welcome to Prognosis. I'm Laura Carlson. It's day two d
Speaker 1: since coronavirus was declared a global pandemic. Today's main story
Speaker 1: as states struggle to piece together vaccine strategies without a
Speaker 1: coordinating national plan, some have resorted to web based technology
Speaker 1: for logistical support. The result they're lining up appointments using
Speaker 1: software that's better suited for arranging volleyball meetups than a
Speaker 1: historic public health campaign. But first, here's what happened in
Speaker 1: virus News today. But Durnas COVID nineteen vaccine won the
Speaker 1: backing of the drug regulator in the European Union. That
Speaker 1: clears the way for a second weapon to stem the
Speaker 1: viruses winter resurgence in Europe. EU leaders are facing growing
Speaker 1: pressure to speed up clearance and deployment of vaccines as
Speaker 1: cases surge across the continent. The Nation Block began immunizations
Speaker 1: last week with the Fiser vaccine, but the pace of
Speaker 1: the rollout has been uneven. In England, more than one
Speaker 1: million people now have coronavirus. That's according to UK Prime
Speaker 1: Minister Boris Johnson, who unveiled official statistics from a government
Speaker 1: report on Wednesday. Rocketing case rates from the new virus
Speaker 1: strain mean one person in every fifty in England now
Speaker 1: has the illness. In London the number is one in thirty.
Speaker 1: Johnson vowed to speed up the government's vaccination program in
Speaker 1: order to eventually lift the latest lockdown. Finally, experts advising
Speaker 1: the world Help the Organization on Vaccine Policies recommended against
Speaker 1: spreading the interval between two doses beyond twenty eight days.
Speaker 1: That followed a move by the UK to extend the
Speaker 1: period between shots to as much as twelve weeks in
Speaker 1: an effort to maximize coverage. Alejandro Craviotto, chairman of the
Speaker 1: Strategic Advisory Group of Experts on Immunization, said in a
Speaker 1: statement that countries facing quote exceptional circumstances of vaccine supply
Speaker 1: constraints end quote can delay the second dose for a
Speaker 1: few weeks, but data on safety and efficacy after only
Speaker 1: one dose is lacking. And now for today's main story.
Speaker 1: It's the most massive vaccine rollout in US history, but
Speaker 1: many local governments are lining up patient appointments using web
Speaker 1: based services better known for handling birthday party r s,
Speaker 1: vps and online yoga sessions. The patchwork of approaches to
Speaker 1: coordinating vaccines means that several Florida counties have deployed event Right,
Speaker 1: Some Oklahoma governments dabbled with sign Up Genius, and in
Speaker 1: some areas, vaccine seekers are kept on hold for hours
Speaker 1: on appointment hotlines, only to be disconnected. I spoke with
Speaker 1: a Lease Young who reported on the technological solutions states
Speaker 1: are turning to when coordinating through vaccine plans. Given the
Speaker 1: shaky rollout of the COVID nineteen vaccines in the US,
Speaker 1: some areas have taken to let's call them unconventional means
Speaker 1: of allocating appointments for receiving the vaccine. I was wondering
Speaker 1: if you could just tell us a bit about some
Speaker 1: of these methods. It's been interesting across the country. Some
Speaker 1: local governments have chosen to run their own portal UH,
Speaker 1: usually in conjunction with their COVID information page. Some states
Speaker 1: have left it up to counties to take care of themselves,
Speaker 1: and counties have then turned to such services as event
Speaker 1: Bright or sign Up Genius, which people more typically use
Speaker 1: for things such as pot luck dinners, car pools, these
Speaker 1: sort of things that you know a community would use,
Speaker 1: and you know what what has led really to to
Speaker 1: you know, say, either health systems, local governments adopting these
Speaker 1: these shall we say, as you said, more social platforms
Speaker 1: for signing up for vaccines. Well, it's odd because state
Speaker 1: governments largely haven't given too much information to people on
Speaker 1: which service to use. For instance, New Jersey has a
Speaker 1: vaccination sign up page of its own uh and then uh,
Speaker 1: and that went live yesterday and then it started to crash,
Speaker 1: um and then UH. Counties have their own sign up
Speaker 1: systems and their own vaccination sites. But we were really
Speaker 1: not sure if you're a person who's seeking a vaccine,
Speaker 1: even if you're in that first group. Well, do I
Speaker 1: use the state service? Do I use event right, do
Speaker 1: I use that the county service? Or do I call
Speaker 1: a hotline. I spoke to one woman who's eighty four
Speaker 1: year old father lives in Chattanooga, in Tennessee, and he
Speaker 1: learned that there was no sign up required, just show up.
Speaker 1: And he did and he waited in line for I
Speaker 1: believe she said six hours. His car was twelve from
Speaker 1: the front when they were told they had run out
Speaker 1: of vaccine. Uh. This is a gentleman who has a
Speaker 1: heart and lung condition and who was relying on supplemental oxygen,
Speaker 1: and he was so fed up he told his daughter,
Speaker 1: I'm not going back. I'm not doing this. I'm just
Speaker 1: going to wait until my doctor has the vaccine and
Speaker 1: that's where I'm going. And is this perhaps a result
Speaker 1: that there is just so much demand an interest for
Speaker 1: these vaccines that they are causing these, say more established
Speaker 1: or more state run systems to crash. I must say
Speaker 1: it's puzzling because governments, state and local governments have had many,
Speaker 1: many months heads up that a vaccine was on the way,
Speaker 1: and it was easy for them to say and understandable
Speaker 1: for them to say early on with the testing effort
Speaker 1: that was falling apart, we've never had anything like this.
Speaker 1: Agents are scarce, there's uh, there's only so many laboratories
Speaker 1: that can process this stuff. And I think people understood that.
Speaker 1: They weren't happy with it, but they understood it. In
Speaker 1: this case, six months ago we knew about Operation Warp
Speaker 1: Speed and here comes a vaccine. And just the other
Speaker 1: day in New Jersey, New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy was saying,
Speaker 1: while the rollout has been on the slower side because
Speaker 1: we don't have the personnel to do the inoculations, so
Speaker 1: we're asking retirees to medical retirees to come in and
Speaker 1: do these inoculations. Well, did you or did you not
Speaker 1: know that vaccines were on the way? Why are we
Speaker 1: waiting now while we have this stuff in stock and
Speaker 1: ready to go, Why are we waiting now to ask
Speaker 1: folks to come forward and help out? In your opinion,
Speaker 1: do you think that this perhaps is a result of
Speaker 1: the rollout being pushed more to the state level rather
Speaker 1: than a a larger federal oversight of this rollout program.
Speaker 1: In the state's defense, they've never done anything like this before, UM,
Speaker 1: and also they there's been a clear leadership vacuum at
Speaker 1: the federal level. At the same time, some people are asking, well,
Speaker 1: where is the Federal Emergency Management Agency on this? It's
Speaker 1: helped in hurricanes, natural disasters of all kinds, and there's
Speaker 1: been no sign of a FEMA presence for at least
Speaker 1: that I'm aware of, for vaccinations. Earlier this year, they
Speaker 1: were in hard hit states like New York and New
Speaker 1: Jersey setting up mobile hospitals UM that were used by
Speaker 1: by folks who were, you know, coming out of hospital
Speaker 1: care and not quite ready to go home. And it
Speaker 1: seems that FEMA has the expertise for something like this,
Speaker 1: even the military, but state governments are kind of throwing
Speaker 1: up their hands and saying there's no playbook for this.
Speaker 1: And you you mentioned some of the some of the
Speaker 1: platforms that the states are turning to like event right.
Speaker 1: Has there been any mention of potential security concerns in
Speaker 1: using platforms like this that weren't necessarily meant for, say,
Speaker 1: distributions of vaccines. Well, this is another question that we
Speaker 1: reporters have and have asked event right and sign Up
Speaker 1: Genius and similar services, and they haven't gotten back to us. Uh.
Speaker 1: My colleague tried multiple times. So we really don't know
Speaker 1: what kinds of information they're collecting, who has access to it,
Speaker 1: whether folks are being asked to say, disclose um medical conditions.
Speaker 1: And the same goes for the state based electronic sites.
Speaker 1: How much information do I have to give exactly? And
Speaker 1: can any state employee take a look at at my
Speaker 1: file and learn what medications I'm using? Uh, there is
Speaker 1: a hippo component here, and we're not certain whether these
Speaker 1: sites comply about these sites as far as you know,
Speaker 1: the companies behind them, what is their perspective or what
Speaker 1: has their reaction been to their sites being used in
Speaker 1: this fairly unconventional way that they may not have foreseen
Speaker 1: a year ago. Some of the sites are actively courting
Speaker 1: the vaccination effort. They're putting out posts that say, if
Speaker 1: you have vaccinations to give, here's how we can be
Speaker 1: of service to you. Are others kind of pushing back
Speaker 1: and and are not perhaps welcoming this, this use of
Speaker 1: their platform. Not that I'm aware of, the state of Oklahoma,
Speaker 1: though early on was a an adopter of one of
Speaker 1: these online UH sites, and and then a few days
Speaker 1: later they announced without explanation that they were not going
Speaker 1: to use one of these sites, that they had their
Speaker 1: own portal set up. And I don't know why that is.
Speaker 1: I don't know why they have abandoned that, if it's statewide,
Speaker 1: if it's just county by county. Governments haven't really been
Speaker 1: forthcoming with information on this. I mean, looking ahead, you know,
Speaker 1: we're in the very early days of vaccine distribution in
Speaker 1: the US. I mean, can we perhaps hopefully see these
Speaker 1: as essentially early growing pains as governments confront this immense
Speaker 1: logistical challenge UM going forward, do we think that there
Speaker 1: will be an increased reliance on these types of sites,
Speaker 1: or do you think that the overwhelmed um, say state
Speaker 1: runs systems, websites, etcetera, are going to be able to
Speaker 1: kind of meet this surge. And and this really is
Speaker 1: a small hiccup in the road of vaccine distribution. I'm
Speaker 1: not sure whether this is a hiccup. Certainly part of
Speaker 1: the problem is that one of the vaccines must be
Speaker 1: kept super cold, so you do have an issue of
Speaker 1: you have to direct people to a site where that
Speaker 1: sort of vaccine can be accommodated. But I wonder if
Speaker 1: maybe these sign ups are really a solution in search
Speaker 1: of a problem. If you tell folks if their last
Speaker 1: names start with A, B and C, to show up
Speaker 1: at this site on such and such a date, and
Speaker 1: everybody line up, it could be as simple as that,
Speaker 1: we've all gotten a flu shot, right, We've all gone
Speaker 1: to our national chain pharmacy or a doctor's office, and
Speaker 1: you're in and out, and if it's too crowded, you
Speaker 1: go back at a different time. I'm not really sure
Speaker 1: how this appointment system is going to work. What happens
Speaker 1: if a whole bunch of people don't show up for
Speaker 1: whatever reason, whether or they just skip the appointment, and
Speaker 1: now we have a lot of this sensitive vaccine that
Speaker 1: must be put into in an arm very soon after thought,
Speaker 1: what do we have a lot of that lying around?
Speaker 1: I don't know what becomes of it. That was a
Speaker 1: lease Young, and that's it for our show today. For
Speaker 1: coverage of the outbreak from one bureaus around the world,
Speaker 1: visit bloomberg dot com slash coronavirus and if you like
Speaker 1: the show, please leave us a review and a rating
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Speaker 1: help more listeners find our global reporting. The Prognosis Daily
Speaker 1: edition is produced by Topher foreheads Magnus Hendrickson and me
Speaker 1: Laura Carlson. Today's main story was reported by Elise Young.
Speaker 1: Original music by Leo Sidrin. Our editors are Rick Shine
Speaker 1: and Francesca Levi. Francesco Levi is Bloomberg's head of podcasts.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening, Tol