by Emory Gun ‘22

The long awaited vaccine for Covid-19 is finally here in the United States, but some states are having trouble getting the shots distributed efficiently. Maryland’s vaccine rollout has been relatively slower to other states, ranking in the bottom third. However, this past week Maryland pharmacies are now allowed to administer vaccines in hopes to speed up the process. As of February 24, The New York Times has reported that 13 percent of Marylanders have gotten at least one dose and 6.6 percent have received two doses. For all states, no matter the ranking, there are too few vaccines. This troubling commonality is apparent in the states that are struggling with administering the vaccine, but also the states that have done exemplary jobs. 

States that have been leading the pack have tended to be the smaller, less-populated states. West Virginia has been consistently ranking as one of the leading states for getting vaccinated. As of February 24, 16 percent  of West Virginians have landed at least one shot and 9.7 percent  have gotten a second dose. Perhaps West Virginia’s relative success is because the state has chosen to go in a different direction than most others. West Virginia was the only state that opted out of choosing the federal rollout plan which worked with certain pharmacies to target nursing homes. Instead West Virginia, “…created a network of pharmacies in the states, pairing them with about 200 long-term care facilities,” according to Sarah Mervosh from The New York Times. 

The West Virginia National Guard has also aided in distributing the vaccine to West Virginians, which has greatly bolstered the speed of the rollout. Many more states have begun using their National Guards for assistance such as Washington, Arkansas, Ohio, and Oklahoma. These states are taking a similar approach in using the National Guard for assistance, but each state uses the National Guard in a slightly different way. In Maryland, the National Guard  has been leaned on by county health departments and have contributed medically, administratively, and logistically. In Ohio the role of the National Guard is to repackage the large shipments of the Pfizer vaccine into smaller shipments. Meanwhile in other states the main role of the National Guard is to transport the vaccine.

States that have been falling behind in vaccinations include Rhode Island, Utah, Tennessee, and others. Rhode Island started strong and were consistently getting their citizens vaccinated. However, consistency might have been their downfall. Lately, they have not been able to significantly increase the amount of vaccines given per day, whereas most states have been seeing increasing numbers.