Legislators grill DOH on vaccine rollout issues
"What I am hearing from people consistently is how confusing and complex this process is," said Representative Michelle McGaw.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) – Members of the Rhode Island House Covid Vaccine Task Force questioned health officials Wednesday night, after hearing non-stop the last few weeks from frustrated constituents who are anxious to get vaccinated.
“What I am hearing from people consistently is how confusing and complex this process is,” said Representative Michelle McGaw.
Dr. Ashish Jha of Brown University testified to the task force that the states that are doing the best with their vaccine roll out have a simplistic and user-friendly system in place. Rhode Island has recently been ranked towards the bottom with its rollout.
“When you don’t have a simple approach, when it is very complex, what happens is you tend to worsen inequities because people who don’t have family who are super tech savvy, who don’t have resources, they’re going to struggle,” said Jha.
Those inequities were at the forefront of the discussion Wednesday.
Representative Michael Chippendale held up a note while speaking to Rhode Island Health Department Director Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott, sent to him from an elderly constituent, to show the large tech divide some seniors are dealing with.
“How does this person, go on a link and sign up?” asked Chippendale, motioning to the note. “Whether it’s a state link, or a CVS link, or a town link. They don’t have links! They write handwritten notes! And this is the population that’s dying!”
One such person having issues with that tech divide is Doug Brozinski of South Kingstown.
“I am not computer literate, I have a flip phone,” explained Brozinski in an interview with ABC 6.
He is a constituent of Representative Kathleen Fogarty and had brought his experience to her attention. He says he finally got a vaccine last week, but that was after what he called an “ordeal.” He called his local senior center, the state, several different pharmacies, and his local site in South Kingstown.
He and his wife are in their 70s. They say it would have been helpful if there was just one place to go for the information.
“I asked God for help,” said Brozinski. “It was so bad.”
Chairman of the task force Representative Raymond Hull, pointed out that there is this confusion using one of Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott’s own slides, which showed several different ways to find a vaccine.
“Can you not see the logistics in that? How disrupting that is? We have three or four different agencies doing one thing,” said Hull.
Dr. Nicole Alexander-Scott let everyone know there is a more centralized system coming as the state moves into phase two, which will also allow them to vaccinate more people, faster.
“We’re starting now and we’ll move forward having streamlined, simplified, VaccinateRI.org as the way to go, or a local pharmacy that you’re familiar with,” the doctor explained. “It has to be faster, it has to be simpler.”
The public will have the chance to give their input at the task force’s next meeting.
