Research indicates that states that opened up multiple categories for Covid-19 vaccinations early have ended up vaccinating a smaller percentage of their population than states that opened up categories more slowly. States that had wide eligibility criteria had trouble with websites and other reservations systems crashing.
Dr. Dan Bell, who has helped coordinate Covid-19 vaccinations at the ECHO Clinic, said he feels that Gov. Asa Hutchinson has done a good job with opening vaccinations first to those most at risk, and moving to other categories after people in the first groups got the shots.
“In our area, it seems it has been a little slower than it should be,” he said. “But in urban areas, I think it is working out just fine. I don’t have any criticism of what the governor has done.”
Last week the governor opened up all Arkansans in category 1-C to eligibility, including those 16 and older with pre-existing medical conditions, and people in a large number of professions including food service, lodging and banking.
Bell said while there has been an increase in the number of residents who are eligible, it hasn’t created a flood of reservations. This week the ECHO Clinic was maxed out giving people their second shots. There was a lag in mid-February when no vaccinations were given because of winter storms, and then about 800 people got their first shots in late February. This week ECHO will be giving mostly booster shots.
“We don’t have slots for a lot of first-time shots,” Bell said. “But we think we will be caught up by the 3-31 clinic. We’re getting a lot of those with pre-existing conditions on for that clinic.”
To date, people called Smith Drug to get on a waiting list for shots. Bell said that has been an overwhelming amount of work for volunteers, and there have been difficulties with people not answering their phones, probably at least some because of concerns about unwanted telemarketing or scam calls.
After the March 31 clinic, ECHO won’t be working off the Smith Drug waiting list.
“We’ve gone to an online scheduling system,” Bell said. “If they call Smith Drug, they will say that ECHO now wants you to schedule online, but you have to be eligible. You have to know the 1-C criteria, have a certain employment record or preexisting conditions. You have to sign that you are qualified to get the vaccine.
“The thing we want to emphasize is that you are on the honor system. You have to have a medical condition that makes you at risk or be working in those categories in 1-C. That category is very important in Eureka because we are a tourism town with a lot of people working in food service and lodging. It has opened up a lot for younger people in Eureka to get vaccinated.”
The new website is bit.ly/echovax.
“As we go forward, we will mainly be vaccinating young people who are tech savvy,” Bell said. “Older folks who might struggle with online are pretty much taken care of and younger folks are able to schedule themselves with an online system.”
Bell remains optimistic about the current direction the pandemic is taking in Arkansas. Arkansas had 52 known new cases of Covid-19 on March 22. Hospitalizations are at their lowest levels since June 2020, and Carroll County had one additional Covid case reported between March 15 and March 22. The county is up to a total of 2,321 cases with 39 deaths, according to the Arkansas Department of Health.
Arkansas currently has 2,862 active cases of Covid in the state, and only one workplace in the state, a manufacturer in Fort Smith, with five or more active cases.
In the entire country, in the past two weeks cases are down seven percent, deaths are down 38 percent and hospitalizations are down 17 percent.
Eureka Springs has seen a big influx of visitors for spring break. Most people downtown appeared to be wearing masks and complying with social distancing.
Bell said he is worried that the governor is going to release the mask mandate on March 31, and this is a time of year when Eureka Springs receives a large number of visitors from all over the country.
“I am concerned that it is still possible we could have a mini surge,” he said. “But the numbers look really good right now. We’ll see what they look like in the next few weeks. So far, the more contagious variants are not a pressing problem in Arkansas. I only know of one or two cases. The key to keeping the variants down is keeping the incidence of the virus down.”
Recent research has concluded that young people may have been more impacted than older people by coming down with anxiety and depression as a result of the pandemic, as they may have been more at risk of losing their jobs and homes than retired people.
“I was thinking the younger people were getting through this well, but apparently it was harder on them than we realized,” Bell said.
Catherine Ettman, director of strategic development at Boston University School of Public Health, was the lead researcher in a study that found high levels of depression among young people.
“These rates were higher than what we’ve seen in the general population after other large-scale traumas like September 11 and Hurricane Katrina,” Ettman said.
That study indicated rates of depression among younger people had tripled since prior to Covid-19, with people who lost jobs and savings the most affected.