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State senators raised some big questions about the vaccine distribution in the state during their workgroup meeting on Monday.
Concerns about the amount of discretion, about where those doses go and who holds the Maryland Department of Health accountable were addressed.
State legislators said they ve been hearing constantly from constituents who are confused by the vaccine rollout. They just want to know when and where they can get the vaccine.
“This is the most important thing happening in state government right now. This has to get done well,” Senate President Bill Ferguson, D-Baltimore City said.
That s why Ferguson said the Senate Vaccine Oversight Workgroup started meeting weekly with acting Health Secretary Dennis Schrader for an update on the coronavirus vaccine distribution around the state.
By: Bryan P. Sears Daily Record Government Reporter January 29, 2021
A pharmacist prepares a syringe of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine Friday, Jan. 8, 2021. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
ANNAPOLIS The vast majority of lawmakers received the coronavirus vaccine this week as members of the House of Delegates prepare to return to full floor sessions in early February.
Lawmakers, eligible under state and CDC guidelines, received COVID-19 vaccinations from the state Health Department this week in what was a relatively quiet rollout. The efforts, however drew some criticism as the state’s overall vaccination program has been spotlighted for being slow and inconsistent.
@BryanRenbaum
Senate President Bill Ferguson Monday reiterated his criticism at the pace of the Hogan administration’s coronavirus vaccine rollout plan.
“We are 40 out of 50 states in our distribution of the vaccine. If look at the number of doses that we have received versus those that have been administered, we are 49 out of 50 states,” Ferguson said at a virtual panel discussion hosted by the Greater Baltimore Committee (GBC). “So in the state that has some of the greatest health care on the globe, that has the best public health institute on the globe…we are 40 out of 50 states in the administration of this vaccine and 49 out of 50 if you look at how much we have received and how much we have actually gotten out.”
How long ago it seems that news of the virus’s rapid spread in Wuhan, China, felt like dispatches from a corner of the globe so remote that it might have well been on another planet.