More people getting second dose of COVID vaccine

Hill County school employees and others who deal with children received their second dose of vaccine at a clinic in Hill County Wednesday, with more coming today.

Northern Montana Health Care has been providing staff to these clinics and Infection Prevention Director Alysia Mosness said she, and the rest of Northern Montana Health Care's staff, are happy to see these second doses go out.

"We were very excited to be able to get the teachers their second vaccines this week," Mosness said. "It is our first big group from the community to get second vaccines so it definitely felt like a big moment for us."

Laverna McGrew, a paraprofessional at Havre High School, said it feels great to finally get the second dose, even if maximum immunity will take a few weeks to kick in.

"I'm glad it's over," McGrew said.

She said the second dose is something she and many others have been anxiously awaiting since the first was administered.

"There's an anticipation involved where it's like, 'It's coming, it's coming,' and now it's done," she said.

McGrew praised the clinic for its efficiency, serving people with very little wait time. She said she didn't even wait for her appointment time, and she was still served immediately and was in the post-shot waiting area before she knew it.

"They've done a really good job of keeping it moving," she said.

Many attendees of the event, including Pat Blankenship, an employee of Student Support Services at Montana State University-Northern, and Lynn Bailey, a copy clerk at Havre Public Schools, also praised the efficiency of the events and said this second dose will make them feel safer at work.

Mosness said this feeling of relief was apparent in the general atmosphere of the room Wednesday.

"You could feel the excitement in the room as people were completing the vaccine series," she said.

Bailey and Blankenship said it feels great to be fully vaccinated and Bailey recommended that anyone who opted out of the vaccine should reconsider.

This sentiment was shared by 29-year-old Havre High Coach Will DeVries, who said that everyone, regardless of age group, should get the vaccine as soon as they can for the sake of the community's health.

"I think it's important for the community, to protect the older people I interact with on a regular basis," he said. "I'm feeling pretty good about it."

Devries said he's not overly worried about himself, as his age group's chance of getting through a bout of COVID-19 without major complication is relatively high. He said he's much more worried about carrying the disease to someone who is more likely to have a poor outcome, especially his parents.

"If someone in the community got it because I wasn't being careful ... I just don't want anyone to get sick," he said.

Attendees reported minor reactions to the vaccine, with sore arms being the most common result along with some chills at worst.

Mosness said she was happy the clinic was able to help support teachers and school employees through this very difficult and stressful time.

"The teachers of this county have continued to support our students throughout this pandemic; it was very important for us to be able to support them and keep them healthy as they continue the school year," she said.

Educators no longer in Phase 1B

Hill County is among a relative few areas in Montana that have vaccinated their educators and school employees.

This is because early in his term, Gov. Greg Gianforte changed his predecessor's COVID-19 vaccination roll-out plan, which originally included Montana's school employees in Phase 1B, just behind front line health care workers and long-term care facility staff and residents.

Gianforte's new plan removed school works from Phase 1B and replaced them with people 70 and older and people age 16-69 with qualifying health conditions in an effort to prioritize those most vulnerable to bad outcomes from COVID-19.

Former Gov. Steve Bullock said he modeled his plan on recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, recommendations that changed shortly after Gianforte made his own changes.

This change angered a great deal of Montana educators, many of whom had seen appointments made for their first dose by the time the changes were made.

Hill County and Blaine County already had set up clinics for educators when Gianforte announced the new schedule.

Hill County Public Health Director and Health Officer Kim Larson said her department as able to honor previous commitments.

Clinics including the second-shot clinics held this week were offered to Hill County educators and others including day care providers and employees in the area with the blessing of the state because they had enough vaccine for it, but this has not been the case in many other place in Montana.

Blaine County Health Department's Health Supervisor and Lead Local Health Official Jana McPherson-Hauer said this morning that Blaine County educators also were offered the chance to get vaccinated and most will receive their second shot at the second-dose clinic Feb. 25-26.

But many counties were not able to set up clinics under the changed schedule, and some school officials protested the change.

North Star Schools Superintendent Bart Hawkins said in January that the move by Gianforte was callous to teachers across the state, especially given how hard they've worked to adapt under these trying circumstances.

"Frankly, it shows an extreme disrespect to all the people that have risked their own well-being to help everyone get through this pandemic," he said. "We have worked hard to keep kids in school and learning, and most of our state has returned to some form of in-person education despite the dangers to our staff."

Box Elder Schools Superintendent Jeremy MacDonald said in January the decision to open the schools in his area was partially based on the expectation that staff would have early access to the vaccine which made the change somewhat problematic.

"We have prioritized getting our schools open, and I think part of that is allowing essential workers, which would be our school staff, access to the vaccine. Hopefully, we can keep our doors open and keep our staff and students safe," he said.

The change was also opposed by the Montana Federation of Public Employees, which put out a press release in January calling it "a slug in the gut to thousands of heroic Montanans," and said it will delay efforts in nearly every Montana community to keep schools open and move the economy forward.

"For nine months now, educators and front-line workers across the state have been doing everything possible to keep our schools open and our economy moving," MFPE President Amanda Curtis said in the press release, "These Montanans have risked their own person health, and some have even died."

Because Hill County was able to hold the clinics including the second-shot clinics this week despite Gianforte's changes, Havre, Rocky Boy, Box Elder and North Star educators were able to be vaccinated, as are the Blaine County educators.

Clinics continue to proceed smoothly

While plans have changed, Hill County continues to see weekly vaccination clinics running smoothly despite high demand.

The first Phase 1B vaccination clinic in Hill County in mid-January saw all of its slots filled in only a few hours, and the department has been steadily working through their waiting list ever since.

These clinics have taken place at the Holiday Village Mall, which has played host to successful clinics in the former Famous Footwear location, run by the Hill County Health Department, Northern Montana Hospital and Bullhook Community Health Center, as well as clinics in the former Herberger's location run by the Montana Department of Veterans Affairs and the Merril Lundman Department of Veterans Affairs Outpatient Clinic, which serves local veterans.

Attendees to these clinics report that even at their busiest they run like well-oiled machines, serving people quickly and efficiently.

Mosness said in an email last week that the distribution in Hill County is going about as well as anyone could hope.

"The rollout in Hill County has gone exceptionally well," she said.

Larson said the partnership with NMH and Bullhook Community Health Center to put on the clinics has been excellent.

She said the staff has been performing its duties admirably as well.

"The process that we have created with the county has worked very well," she said. "I believe that shows when you look at the amount of people we have been able to successfully vaccinate in Hill County."

She said the county has done exceptionally well getting the vaccine to people without wasting doses, which has been a problem in many parts of the U.S.

"You hear stories from other places that they are sitting on large amounts of vaccine and are having difficulty getting it out to people," she said, "That is not something that we are experiencing here."

Mosness said Northern Montana Health Care has a great deal of experience holding and distributing vaccines, having run flu vaccine clinics in the past, but the COVID-19 vaccine rollout has been a significantly more-complicated affair with the logistics of storage, handling, and this vaccine being a two-shot series making a new process for staff.

However, despite these complications, she said, staff have adapted quickly.

"If you walk into one of the clinics I think that you would be surprised to learn that it is something that we have only been doing since the middle of January," she said last week.

Blaine County's rollout also appears to be going well.

Blaine County's Health Supervisor and Lead Local Health Official Jana McPherson-Hauer said last week that the department had gotten the vaccine to more than 200 people so far and their partners at the Fort Belknap Service Area Indian Health Service and Fort Belknap Tribal Health/Public Health Nursing did a great job of getting vaccinations rolled out to Fort Belknap and Blaine County residents starting early.

"Blaine County is healthier because of it," she said.

The health department and Sweet Medical Center and Aaniiih Nakoda College's Nursing Department had a clinic scheduled in Chinook this morning.

Watch for more on the Chinook vaccination clinic in upcoming editions of Havre Daily News.

Montana's allocation

While Hill County appears to be moving forward steadily, Gianforte said he is dissatisfied with the allocation being provided by the federal government.

He said he believes Montana, having had a smoother roll-out than most states deserves to have its performance rewarded with a larger allocation, which he said is lower per capita than many other states which have performed worse.

"I believe good behavior should be rewarded, not penalized," he said in a press conference late last month.

Despite a recent increase in the allocation Gianforte has repeatedly said he promises to keep pushing the Biden Administration for an allocation that reflects Montana's effectiveness in distributing the vaccine.

The continuing need for vigilance

More COVID-19 vaccine is rolling into the area and more clinics are being scheduled every week, but health officials one the federal, state and county levels continue to warn people they need to continue efforts to slow the spread of the disease until enough people are vaccinated to reduce the risk.

This became apparent when an outbreak at Dodson Public Schools sent numbers up in Blaine and Phillips County including on Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and closed the Dodson schools for a couple of weeks in mid-January.

Chester-Joplin-Inverness Schools announced confirmed cases this week and that the schools would go to complete online learning throuhg

"Everyone is ready for this pandemic to be over, and believe me, we are as well," Larson said last month. "But we need to stay vigilant in protecting our communities through easy preventive measures such as social distancing, wearing a face covering when you can't social distance, washing your hands regularly and staying home when you are sick. Now is not the time to let up, we need to keep pushing through to the end. The vaccine is not 100 percent effective in preventing illness, no vaccine is, so people need to still do their part to slow the spread."