The Homa Files

“At least one shot for all teachers, school staff and child-care workers by the end of March”
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Biden said that he was directing states to prioritize teachers and that he’d use the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program to get teachers at least one shot by the end of March.

That latter point got my attention since wife Kathy & I are scheduled for our second shots in mid-March at a Fed program pharmacy.

The program kicked off at our road trip CVS in mid-February.

From then until now, the store has been jabbing 1st shots and scheduling 2nd shots at the prescribed 4 weeks interval.

Said differently, the store’s 2nd shots start in mid-March.

My sense is that the store is operating at near capacity given its space constraints.

So, by my count, they’re fully booked for the rest of March (and into April), giving promised 2nd doses to their 1st dose recipients.

Hmmm.

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If our store is representative of all in the Fed retail pharmacy program, how is Team Biden going to squeeze teachers into the stores’ schedule?

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Given constrained vaccinating capacity (either doses or staffing or space), making room for teachers means bouncing people already scheduled.

My hunch: That won’t fly.

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Biden has pledged that he would “follow the science”, right?

The CVS is administering the Moderna 2-shot vaccine.

The CDC guidelines prescribe getting the 2nd Moderna shot  4 weeks after the first one.

Biden has pledged that he would “follow the science”, right?

So, Team Biden can’t cancel the already scheduled 2nd shots — which are the bulk (likely all) of the March schedule.

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Well then how about cancelling some first shots on the schedule (if any), and re-filling the slots with teachers?

That’s got issues, too.

On a micro basis, as explained above, there just aren’t many 1st shots on the store’s schedule.

On a macro level,  a WSJ editorial cut to the chase.

Mr. Biden is making a mistake, asking states and pharmacies to give priority to educators (read: teachers unions), school staffers and child-care workers.

That is arbitrary and unfair.

A 30-year-old teacher who may still work remotely until September is at far less risk than a 50-year-old grocery store worker who interacts with customers all day  [or a 70-something with coo-morbidities].

Hmm.

Ditching “vulnerables” for healthy thirty-something teachers who work in a CDC-deemed safe environment sounds like a Cuomoesque strategy, doesn’t it?

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Bottom line: Unless the states bale Biden out and move all of their teachers to the front of their lines, I don’t see how Joe keeps his promise to the unions.

This could get interesting.

This entry was posted on March 4, 2021 at 2:30 pm and is filed under COVID - vaccine. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.