Texas Runs Into Vaccine Record Keeping Issues
According to a new, vast, report from The Texas Tribune, the State of Texas is working really hard to correct issues that could impact their future COVID-19 vaccine shipments.
The picture painted by The Texas Tribune is one of panic and problems surrounding the software being used to track vaccine data. Including a specific story of a pharmacy in Austin. The story is that after pharmacists at Austin's Tarrytown Pharmacy finished administering 500 doses of the vaccine over the holiday season, they checked their system called ImmTrac2 to track the vaccines and found a major issue. The system told them that they hadn't given out 500 doses of the vaccine. It told them that their 500 doses were still sitting on shelves, unused.
But it wasn't just one pharmacy in Austin, these issues were impacting the whole state. Which is a problem that needed to be corrected right away. Because the amount of COVID-19 vaccine Texas will be receiving in the future will be influenced by how fast fast they're administering those shots.
So far, states have been getting vaccine allotments based on the state population, but health officials in Texas believe that those shipments will now be based on the rate states are using vaccines, sending more to states who are vaccinating faster than others.
Meaning that if the tracking software Texas is using shows that vaccines are sitting on shelves, even after they've been used, the state will not be getting as much vaccine from the Federal Government as they need.
This new measurement of success the Feds could be using to decide who gets more vaccine may not just hurt Texas and their software problems. Louisiana may be a concern too.
So far, Louisiana is in the top half of the country in vaccine rollout. But as the state continues to hold onto large parts of their vaccine supply, the rate of vaccination will likely slow down. If that happens, and the fears shared by the officials in Texas, Louisiana will likely fall behind as well.