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BV stages first mass vaccination event

By Max R. Smith, Times reporter
Feb 17, 2021
Feb 17, 2021 Updated May 23, 2023
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Two by two, vehicles pulled into the parking lot of Sangre de Cristo Electric Association at the north end of town for Buena Vista’s first mass vaccination event. Chaffee County Public Health distributed 115 of the first round of shots of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine.

The event started at noon, but by 11:30 a.m., several cars had already begun to stack in the lot, where recipients prepared for that eagerly-awaited jab in the arm, administered through open car windows by CCPH staff.

“We are really satisfied with today’s clinic,” said CCPH director Andrea Carlstrom. “We are so grateful to Sangre de Cristo Electric Association, town of Buena Vista staff and police department, Solvista Health and Chaffee County EMS for their support in pulling off another mass vaccination event.

“The model itself seems to be working really well,’ Carlstrom said. “We experienced a surge at the beginning, which definitely slowed down as the afternoon progressed, so we were able to add a few unexpected slots.”

The vaccine comes in two doses. Carlstrom said that an event to administer the second dose is planned for March 16.

“As of right now, we will be using the same location and model,” she said.

The logistics for the event came together quickly, beginning when Buena Vista town administrator Phil Puckett, along with county commissioner Keith Baker, got an e-mail from Carlstrom early Wednesday, Feb. 10, notifying them that public health had received doses of the vaccine.

“One of the topics that we had brought up in previous round-table discussions with the county and public health is that we wanted to find every opportunity to add clinics and doses and all of that for the northern end of the county,” Puckett said. “Andrea reached out to me and Keith Baker and said, ‘Hey, she had just found out recently about the extra doses, and if we could find a location, and pull together some volunteers, they would be able to host a clinic in BV the following week … We got on a Zoom meeting later that morning and talked about the location of a clinic and what they would need in terms of space and facilities and electric and all that stuff.”

What Sangre de Cristo had that town-owned facilities lacked was space for cars to stack – to line up – and wait the required 15 minutes after the shot is administered.

“I felt like the Sangre de Cristo in the northern part of town fit what was being described by Andrea: they have two entrances from the highway, they have a parking lot that you can drive in a circle, so you could have cars stacking if there was ever a bunch of people arriving at the same time, they could get into the parking lot,” Puckett said. “We agreed that looked like a viable site, it also provided some indoor space for the public health personnel.”

Puckett called Paul Erickson, CEO of SdCEA, and together they “spent the afternoon documenting what would be needed in general for the space and the timeframes that they would be needing it.”

“We were thrilled at the opportunity to lend our facilities to the town of BV and Chaffee County Public Health, for the good people of Chaffee County,” Erickson said. “After all, as a community electric cooperative it’s our duty to help our folks and under the circumstances we were certainly happy to do so.”

Carlstrom said that when CCPH is able to hold another event like the one Tuesday “will depend on when we get a shipment of first doses again.

“At times, we are getting information about shipments on an hourly or daily basis and have a tight turnaround timeline to schedule clinics. However, we hope to do it more often and partner with other vaccine providers to make sure we can get as much vaccine as possible into the arms of all Chaffee County residents, regardless of where they live,” she said.

Timeline to staging a vaccination event

Chaffee County Public Health, the town of Buena Vista and Sange de Cristo Electric Association combined resources to schedule Buena Vista’s first mass vaccination clinic Feb. 16.

The following is a narrative timeline of the process for getting a handle on the chaos of uncertainty. The “order’s-in waiting game, maybe it will, probably could, likely to happen, yes?” process by which vaccine doses trickle from the national pipeline to Chaffee County start with uncertainty and end with get jumpin’ urgency.

NOTIFICATION Feb. 9, 10:04 p.m. CPDHE automated email notifies Chaffee Health the order placed the previous Friday has been granted.

CLOCK WAS ALREADY TICKING The state requires doses be administered within 72 hours of receipt with possible use-it or lose-it consequences for local administrators – week after week. Some weeks, full requests are granted and others have been rejected or partially granted. “Because we do not want to create any false hope, we have been very careful to only release dates and slots when we feel fairly confident that we will be receiving first or second doses and of which type of vaccine,” explains Chaffee Health director and COVID-19 incident response commander Andrea Carlstrom.

CHANGING RULES, LEARNING AS WE GO Since doses began rolling out nationally in late December, the ordering process has changed three times.

“I think we are on our way to a more streamlined system. However, there is no full confidence week after week,” Carlstrom says.

CLOCK TICKS, BUT WITH MORE URGENCY Doses aren’t always deep frozen. Chaffee Health received 450 Pfizer doses for the Feb. 12 clinic for Buena Vista school staff last week, but they were in refrigeration rather than ultra cold chain.

“We have 120 hours from frozen to refrigeration to use them,” Carlstrom explains. “Wasting doses is not an option, so we spring into action once we know what resources we have been approved for and what we actually get. We have had to pivot many times.”

MORNING COMES EARLY

Carlstrom emailed her team at 6:09 a.m., Wednesday to initiate the process to reconcile second doses neeeded to determine how many would be left for a BV clinic. She emailed Chaffee County Commissioner Keith Baker and Buena Vista town administrator Phil Puckett before 8 a.m., to initiate planning a BV mass vaccination “due to the increased supply of vaccine for that week.”

The following Tuesday was the next available date, reserved for a not-yet scheduled event.

YOU’VE HEARD THAT TIME FLIES, right?

11:30 a.m. Zoom meeting: Sangre de Cristo was suggested as a potential site for the vaccination clinic. Puckett contacted Paul Erickson, SdCEA CEO, and he approved the suggestion.

Early afternoon CCPH lines out staffing, volunteers, times, logistics, etc. Because building the “online scheduler takes time, I had one of my nurses work on it in between meetings and appointments throughout the afternoon,” Carlstrom said.

4:50 p.m. The online scheduler is live and a press release e-mailed to 130-plus stakeholders, media and others.

10:30 a.m., Feb. 11 Walkthrough of facility with Sangre de Cristo and town staff.

CHALLENGES KEEP THOSE CLOCKS TICKING

“While our vaccination distribution is a significant milestone in the pandemic and should be a celebration, the complexities and challenges that have come with it have continued to put local public health in a tight position,” Carlstrom says. “It was my intent to share that experience with the people living in the north end of the county who might find it difficult to travel to the Chaffee County Fairgrounds.”

EARLY RESULTS ARE IN

“Working at the clinics, I have seen and heard tremendous gratitude and appreciation,” she says. “There have been tears, smiles, laughter, and stories shared. People have told me how hopeful they are that there is finally light at the end of this long, dark tunnel.”