Public oversight roundtable will examine DC's COVID-19 vaccination process
WASHINGTON (ABC7) — As part of the District's plan to prioritize vaccine appointments for residents of hard-hit wards, DC Health opened up 1,745 appointments at 9 a.m. Thursday. Those appointments were only available to health care workers and seniors in Wards 1, 4, 5, 7, and 8.
It took just 15 minutes for every appointment to be booked.
7 On Your Side continues to track not just the shortage of shots, but also equity concerns and technology troubles with the District's vaccine distribution process.
RELATED: Scheduling issues, equity concerns as DC opens COVID-19 vaccine registration to seniors
Earlier this month, we spoke to Council Member Kenyan McDuffie, who successfully pushed for the city to begin prioritizing vaccine appointments by zip code.
"We really want to make sure the process in place for scheduling appointments is modified to account for those communities and people who live in the zip codes that have been hardest hit by the pandemic," McDuffie told ABC7 on January 14. "We need to account for that when we think about how the vaccine is distributed, so that those individuals, largely minorities who live in certain communities that have been devastated by this virus, we need to meet them where they are."
68-year-old Charlotte Lewis, who lives in Ward Five, spoke to ABC7 about the frustration of trying to book an appointment.
"The mayor opened up the appointments on Monday, January 11 and I went online --- nothing. By the time I finally got through, all the appointments were taken," said Lewis. "I went online many times trying to get an appointment, and it was a futile effort."
Lewis says she was able to secure an appointment only after the city changed the registration process and began prioritizing appointments based on zip code.
"Without that intervention, I would still be waiting," she said. "I was very lucky, very fortunate, and very grateful."
But she knows there are many senior citizens still waiting for a fair shot at the shot.
"When you start thinking about the African American community, there's a huge inequitability there," she said. "You're looking at a vaccine that's highly sought after, and you're expecting people with no internet access or little usage of the computer to register to get a vaccine, or to hold on a phone for an endless amount of time to get through. That just seems to be a third world approach."
RELATED: After equity concerns, DC Health offers more COVID vaccine appointments in hard-hit wards
Now, Council Member Vincent Gray, who chairs the Committee on Health, is holding a public oversight roundtable that will examine the District's COVID-19 vaccination process.
"I'm hopeful that this hearing will elevate the continuing concerns people have, and that we can communicate these concerns to folks in the health department and those who work on this issue across the city," said Gray. "We want to have the best process we possibly can, so that folks in the District of Columbia who want to be vaccinated will have a fair opportunity to be able to do so."
Community members have until 6 p.m. Thursday to sign up to testify at the public oversight roundtable. Click here to register.
"The breaking point was to see the situations in which people who live in Wards 7 and 8 just weren't able to get through or communicate what they want, what they need, and have them responded to in the most rapid way possible," said Gray, when asked why he decided to hold the public oversight roundtable. "People call in to a number they've been given and they can't reach anyone, and then they don't get a prompt callback."
The roundtable is a two day virtual event, that will take place Friday, January 29 from 10 a.m. to six p.m. and Monday, February 1 from 10 a.m. to six p.m. It will be streamed live on the D.C. Council's website.
On the first day, January 29, Gray said the Committee on Health will hear testimony from community members and welcomes feedback from the public regarding their experiences with the vaccination process and suggestions for improvements.
On the second day, February 1, the Committee on Health will hear testimony from government witnesses.
Gray says issues to be discussed include: the effectiveness of the District's vaccinate.dc.gov enrollment portal and call-in number, the enrollment process, communication and outreach, and the equitable prioritization of vaccines.
"I'm very concerned about it. That's why we're trying to reach out," said Gray. "To make sure people are being equitably treated and to make sure there is pure fairness in the entirety of what we're doing on this."
To watch the public oversight roundtable on the District's COVID-19 vaccination process Friday and Monday, click here.
On Thursday, D.C. Health Director Dr. LaQuanda Nesbitt responded to questions about equity issues and racial disparities with vaccine distribution among residents in the District.
RELATED: DC health dir. says equity approach used to distribute vaccines to minority communities
"We are absolutely focused on equity and equity access to the vaccine, not only through the appointment process, but also how we distribute vaccines to our providers," said Dr. Nesbitt.
She explained in that in addition to the registration system now prioritizing appointments based on zip code, D.C. Health is also allocating vaccines to health systems and federally qualified health centers.
That set-up allows those community health centers to be able to reach out to and provide vaccines to their community patient populations.
"For those of you who are not familiar with federally qualified health centers and safety net hospitals that serve a disproportionate share of the Medicaid population, such as Howard University Hospital, their goal is to serve racial and ethnic minority populations," said Dr. Nesbitt. "We've been giving those health centers and those safety net hospitals vaccines for several weeks to reach out to their patients."
Below are the community health centers that are now scheduling vaccine appointments for their patients aged 65 and older:
- Mary’s Center
- Community of Hope
- Unity (Upper Cardoza)
- Unity (Brentwood)
- Bread for the City
- La Clinica del Pueblo
- Elaine Ellis
- Providence Health System
The District hospitals listed below have also begun outreach to schedule vaccine appointments for their senior patient populations:
- Howard University Hospital
- MedStar Georgetown University Hospital
- MedStar Washington Hospital Center
- The George Washington University Hospital
- Sibley Memorial Hospital
- United Medical Center
- Kaiser Permanente
On Friday at 9:00 a.m., the city says an additional 1,745 appoints will become available to all wards --- for residents 65 and older or any individual who works in a health care setting in DC. Those appointments are once again expected to be booked quickly.