Editorial: Hurdles ahead for vaccine rollout

There is no escaping the reality that Hawaii is embarking on what Lt. Gov. Josh Green describes as the state’s largest public-health initiative in its history.

The basic shape of the plan that the state has laid out appears sensible, judging by the outline state officials presented on Tuesday.

So far, since the arrival of the first COVID-19 vaccines a few weeks ago, the deployment has been moving relatively smoothly through its top tier, the health-care providers and the long-term care residents who are most at risk. In all, officials said, about a third of the approximately 83,000 doses have been administered.

But in terms of the raw numbers, the process has barely begun — and those designing the blueprint have to feel the imperative to ensure that the vaccine delivery pipeline remains open, and that the process is communicated, clearly and repeatedly, to the public.

The initial group of residents prioritized to receive the vaccine numbered around 50,000, officials said. What’s coming next — the prioritized elders age 75 and older, as well as selected front-line workers — total nearly 160,000.

Beyond that, those age 65 and up, as well as other at-risk workers and those with chronic diseases, add up to about 400,000 — and the rollout to the rest of the population will follow, projected to be sometime in the summer.

Managing this massive operation is going to take all hands on deck, even in advance of federal resources alloted for vaccine deployment arriving in state coffers.

The national experience has already served as a warning to Hawaii that there could be bumps in the road ahead. Florida reported problems stemming from fraudulent appointment listings appearing on Eventbrite, the online reservation service that some counties were using.

Elsewhere, the fact that both the Pfizer- and Moderna-developed vaccines require ultra-cold storage added complications for crews that misjudged the number of shots to be administered on a given day. Once thawed, the doses cannot be refrozen, so some went to waste.

There are going to be glitches in anything this complicated, but if Hawaii is attentive to such pitfalls and gets ahead of the potential for confusion with ongoing public outreach, that should be kept to a minimum.

Much of the responsibility for the ultimate success of the vaccinations rests with the public. Once they’ve signed up for an appointment, they must make sure they keep it — and remain engaged until the second shot each vaccine requires, a booster, is delivered.

At this point, however, many don’t know where or how to do their part in this. During Tuesday’s media conference webcast, questions popped into the online chat about whether their vaccine will be available through their own physician or some other source.

The state Department of Health has answered them only in part, by pledging to post more information at hawaiicovid19.com. Acknowledging that online platforms don’t serve everyone well, a new information phone line is set up at (808) 586-8332.

But callers to that line are told they may have a long wait and are suggested to consult a frequently-asked-questions page at tinyurl.com/hawaiivax — a site that on Wednesday showed as last updated Dec. 24.

So, Hawaii has much work to do. Some of its past communication efforts have worked well — the inaugural all-mail voting outreach comes to mind — others, such as the state’s disastrous unemployment inquiry management, do not fill one with confidence.

Most island residents are eager to get the vaccine, key to restoring some normalcy to their lives. That, at least, is an advantage, but its delivery must be set up right — right now.