February 23, 2021
The House Health Committee met this morning to provide committee members with the opportunity to ask questions of NCDHHS Secretary, Dr. Mandy Cohen, on COVID-19 response, metrics, and vaccine distribution.
Secretary Cohen started the meeting by saying that she was encouraged by North Carolina’s declining COVID-19 metrics. New variants of the virus are a top concern, because it is unknown how the vaccine works against them. As of this week, 2.1 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine have been administered in North Carolina, and 1.5 million people have gotten at least the first dose.
Beginning tomorrow, frontline essential workers are eligible to receive the vaccine, starting with school personnel. Additional frontline essential workers will be eligible on March 10th. Vaccine supply continues to be a constraint. The FDA is reviewing a third vaccine this week from Johnson and Johnson, which will hopefully increase or vaccine supply. Secretary Cohen also said that North Carolina is leading in vaccine equity. Bloomberg News recently reported that North Carolina ranked best in the country for vaccine equity data. NCDHHS is tracking COVID-19 vaccine distribution demographics on a county-by-county basis.
Questions and Answers:
Question from Rep. Potts: NDHHS was recently audited and there were some alarming discoveries, including that some providers were practicing without licenses and receiving payments, and that other providers with noted issues were still allowed to treat patients. What is being done to fix this?
Answer: The audit did not find any issues related to the initial application, it had to do with the ongoing applications for those providers in our Medicaid system. We are taking this very seriously. We were relying on an automated system to filter through the licensed providers, but we are now starting to go through it manually for revoked and limited licenses. NCDHHS is starting a committee to review providers whose licenses have been limited since applying to be a provider for NC Medicaid.
Question from Rep. Lambeth: Why are some businesses singled out and some gathering sizes inconsistent? Why are gaming centers and gambling sites able to be packed full, but bars are closed? We aren’t allowing spectators for sporting events at large arenas, when they could certainly socially distance. Scientists are saying different things. How are you making these decisions for different businesses and activities?
Answer: We have tried to base our decisions on the trends we see, and how the virus spreads. It depends on the setting, indoors or outdoors, and wearing a mask. We know that the level of risk goes up if you are sitting in one place for a long period of time, and if you are without a mask- like eating or drinking. If parking lots are full, they are not abiding by the current capacity restrictions. Our trends are moving in the right direction, and Governor Cooper will be making announcements later this week on some of our restrictions.
Question from Rep. Sasser: At this time, are there any vaccines in drug stores?
Answer: Yes, there are. We are in the second week of the federal government’s Retail Pharmacy Program, meaning that 300 Walgreens locations have vaccines coming from the federal government. We are onboarding pharmacy providers, about 60 or 70 pharmacies, that are already receiving the vaccine from the state’s allocation.
Question from Rep. Sasser: Are any of those pharmacies in minority communities?
Answer: I will need to check to confirm, but we chose Walgreens as our first partner because of the geographical locations across the state. We hope to bring in more pharmacies soon.
Question from Rep. White: We know that vaccine supply is a concern. Many of our elderly population is still not vaccinated. How can we add more people to be eligible for vaccination when we still have a backlog for the first two groups?
Answer: We know that our frontline essential worker group is a very large group. We are surveying our vaccine providers to see who is ready to vaccinate additional populations. We anticipate additional vaccine doses in the coming weeks, and are expecting a Johnson & Johnson vaccine to come in the next several weeks which will help us vaccinate more people.
Question from Rep. Shepard: When will we see visitation policies relax for nursing homes?
Answer: This has been a hard year for our nursing homes. We’ve seen a lot of severe disease and death. I’m glad we’ve been able to vaccinate this population first, and many nursing home residents are taking the vaccine. Nursing home policies are largely guided by the federal government. We are working with CMS to figure out when policies may loosen some for visitation.
Question: What is our new ranking for vaccine distribution?
Answer: We are somewhere in the teens. Yesterday, I saw us at 15th. If you look at total doses administered, we were 8th or 9th. It bounces around, but we are at the top of the rankings. The weather delay for vaccine shipments may throw us off a bit over the next week, but it should bounce back.
Question from Rep. Dixon: Why have you been hesitant to talk about the value of herd immunity?
Answer: The issue with herd immunity is that we don’t know what it means for this virus. We want to be sure we understand what our goals are. We want as many people vaccinated as quickly as possible, but we are completely limited by vaccine supply right now. We are still discovering the longevity of immunity provided from the vaccine.
Question from Rep. Szoka: Originally, we were focused on flattening the curve and making sure that our hospitals and providers aren’t strained. Is the primary goal to still flatten the curve? What metric will you use when the curve has been flattened for us to relieve restrictions?
Answer: We have been consistent with the metrics we are tracking. We know that our hospitals never became overwhelmed, and our trends are moving in the right direction. We have more work to do to keep the virus level low, and the wild card is the new variants. Because of our improving trends, the Governor plans to announce updates to the Executive Orders in place later this week.
Question from Rep. Cunningham: Can you elaborate on COVID-19’s effect on children? Reports say the new strain is more prevalent in children?
Answer: We know that the new variant of the virus is more severe in adults, so people can assume that it is the same in children, but children still don’t have high levels of viral spread.
Question from Rep. Lambeth: There are rumors that the Pfizer vaccine is more effective after one shot, and that some people are not returning for the second shot. Are you seeing this?
Answer: People are coming back for their second shot. Only about 3.5% of people are late for their second shot. It is reported that the second dose produces more severe side effects, but this is a sign that your immune system is strengthening.