Letters We Wish We'd Written Dept. -- One State's Bungling Of Vaccinations

 

In today's Washington Post, a letter about how one (blue) state governed by a Republican bungled the COVID-19 vaccination effort:

The March 8 edition included articles on the front page — “In Md., a debate on vaccine supply” — and in the Metro section — “Lessons from vaccine sign-ups” — on issues with delivering vaccinations. One big issue is the absence of central registration sites for Maryland counties. That absence has sent most people on regular and frustrated searches of multiple possible locations every day, a truly vast waste of time and energy.

The Post has not answered the fundamental questions about why this absence happened initially and why it has been allowed to continue, despite the huge frustration it continues to cause. There is clearly a great failure of Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan’s (R) administration, but why?

John Hansman, Rockville

 

We're pretty certain Mr. Hansman intuits the "why" -- the Republican governor took the same haphazard approach on a state- level basis that his party leader took on a national basis.  Delegating the registration process to local jurisdictions and companies allows the governor to blame county executives if things go awry, which they have and he has.  (His control of the distribution process also allows him to penalize counties that are Democratic strongholds, for example by refusing to allow a mass vaccination site in populous, deep blue Montgomery County.)  On the other hand he's been all too willing to push an aggressive schedule for schools and businesses to reopen, counter to the advice of medical experts and the wishes of county leaders. Now, however, since the supply of vaccines is starting to increase and the Biden administration is launching a new website to facilitate vaccination appointments (thanks, President Biden), the governor's bungling of the vaccination effort will soon be a thing of the past.

But the frustration and anger lingers.