 This is think take Hawaii. Welcome to this show on think tech. This show is the state of the state of Hawaii, and I'm your host Stephanie stole Dalton. We have a guest today Brooks Bear, who is an official on the Department of Health's COVID-19 and pandemic response team. And he serves as the Department of Health's communications person and as spokesperson. So we have an excellent resource here for discussing Hawaii's success in rolling out COVID vaccinations and other helpful support for our our response to the to the pandemic. He's also been quoted in many newspaper articles and many newscast. So I know we have a reliable resource here and we can ask any questions and get some really quality answers. I'm looking forward to that. We participated. We really appreciate Brooks participation in think tech Hawaii and I do want to welcome him now as my guest on the state of the state of Hawaii. So welcome Brooks. Stephanie, thank you so much. I will try to live up to that good billing. You know, there is so much good information that we would like to share about COVID-19 about the ongoing vaccination effort about how people can continue to protect themselves and protect their neighbors and all of Hawaii. As we continue to deal with this really horrible pandemic. So thank you for the opportunity any chance we get where we can share information we embrace it. So and you gave me good billing. I'll try to answer any any questions, the softballs and the hardballs to Well, we'll take that offer seriously because as we go forward we Are going to be real interested to know how all of us are progressing in our challenge to get vaccinated completely because we do even getting over this first hump. Which I'll ask you about we then have the second round and that's certainly your accomplishment for the your departments in the state of Hawaii's effort to get this first round done is certainly worthy. And tremendous effort, but you know, you got to do it again. So two times about Everest. So I think, you know, we'll probably like to talk again and I really appreciate that offer. Well, why why don't you start out telling us from your vantage point and your information. Is the distribution process going well. Is this progressing well for everybody. Yeah, thank you. Well, let me tell you first of all that this this really is kind of a Herculean effort because nothing like this has ever been A template attempted or accomplished before not only in Hawaii, but around the country in the world to try to vaccinate so many people inoculate so many people in such a short period of time. That's really never been done, but it is so critically important that we get this done. So we're charging full steam ahead. With our partners at the CDC and our partners all around Hawaii, whether it be in the local hospitals at the county level at the federally qualified health centers. The pharmacies, we are all partnering to try to get as many shots and arms as quickly as we possibly can. We said from the beginning that we expected there would be some bumps along the road because again nothing like this has been attempted before. And there certainly have been bumps along the road. But you know when you hit a bump, you don't just roll over and quit, not with something that's this important. This is really life or death. So we take on the challenges and we try to smooth out those bumps. We learn from any mistakes that happen along the way and we continue to try to do better and better and better and really make this As smooth a process as possible. What we're really looking to do is not only make it safe and secure but orderly. I know that you've seen images from around the country where there are these long, long lines of either cars or sometimes elderly people camped out overnight waiting for a vaccine. That's just not the way we do things here in Hawaii. That doesn't show the aloha, especially to our kupuna. We're not going to have them camp out overnight, you know, waiting for a vaccine only to find out that when morning comes, there might not be a vaccine for them. So Regarding that, unlike February last year, we did not get the test. I remember being at Kapi'olani and being told that people were going into their Emergency room and they had these symptoms and they suspected that they were COVID, but they didn't have the testing kits. So we didn't get the testing kits. Well, then it turned out that nobody did. So Hawaii wasn't disciplined, it's just for its own sake. But it looks like now It's own sake being so far away, but for now it looks like we're in the running just as all the states are for Our our vaccine supplies and those are coming as they should. And at the level that it's being distributed, even though, and is that enough. And Yeah, you know, that's a great question because right now our real struggle is with the supply of vaccine. We are expecting this week to receive 40,200 doses. That's up about 8,000 from last week and above about 8,000 from the week before. And each of those weeks, we received about 32,000, 33,000 doses. This week, we're getting a bump up. We have a new administration in Washington. They're trying to grease this kid so we get a better supply, a quicker supply. We definitely appreciate that. Again, 40,200 this week. We think we can easily administer 60 to 70,000 vaccines a week with the infrastructure we already have in place. Now if we were able to secure an additional 20,000, 30,000 vaccines and we were able to get our hands on 60,000, 70,000 vaccines a week and get those shots in arms. You know, we could back this thing out and have everyone that wants to be inoculated, inoculated by the end of August. And that would be just terrific because then we'd have the upper hand on COVID-19. But supply is the problem right now. Demand far outstripped supply. So many people from so many corners of the island, so many age groups, so many walks of life, so many professions, everyone clamoring for the vaccine. And that's really a good problem to have because the real problem would be if no one wanted to get vaccinated because then we'd have to go out and sell people on the idea. But as everyone sees more and more people getting vaccinations and they're not having these bad adverse side effects. Yeah, some people have had side effects, but we haven't seen any really horrible side effects in Hawaii. And I have seen so many people, even, you know, elderly frail people, they get the vaccine, no problem whatsoever. That's encouraging more and more people to accept the vaccinations. And that's what we really need if we're going to get the upper hand on COVID-19. As far as the supply is concerned, now, is it that the state could ask for more, but somebody else, like you said, the administration already has gifted us with more. Maybe they did that for everybody and that's a good sign they're working really, really hard. But was that asked for, or do, does the Governor E.K. ask for more or ask for some? Well, what happens on that ordering thing? Is this an automatic? Can you tell us a little bit about how we get it? Yeah, it's an allocation through the federal government. Right now, we're getting both the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine and the Moderna vaccine. And we request, well, the federal government gives us an allocation. They say, yeah, this is what, you know, you can get and we want it all, you know, we have not said no to one single dose. In fact, again, we want quite a bit more because we can get those shots in ours as long as we can get, you know, more supply. And this is not a problem unique to Hawaii, I should point out. This is a problem across the country. People are clamoring for more doses of vaccine and we're optimistic now that this is going to start to take off. You know that Johnson & Johnson is going to be soon applying with the Food and Drug Administration for its emergency use authorization. And if it gets that, the CDC would then take a look and give recommendations on how the vaccinations should be administered. But with FDA granting an emergency use authorization and recommendations from the CDC, we could soon be using the Johnson & Johnson vaccine as well. And that should help increase our supply. So that would be really welcome news. I see. So that would just, that would be a third stream in. That's really interesting. I did want to ask you, you mentioned that we are likely, if we're on peace, as you describe it, if the Department of Health is running a really such a wiggity split operation that's working. Is there a timeline for getting everybody vaccinated? I think you said by August, maybe we could be we could have covered all those that are uncomplicated and, you know, willing to do it. Is that the timeline? Has the state set or has the department set a timeline for accomplishing this feat? Yeah, actually, we have an image that will help explain our timeline. And as you know, we started with what was the phase 1A category. And those are the health care professionals and residents and employees of long term care facilities. Now, the hospitals were the ones administering the vaccinations to health care professionals. So if you work at a hospital, it was very easy. In that phase 1A, you would get your inoculation through your hospital where you work. If you work, say, in an independent doctor's office or a physical therapist's office or a dentist's office in a particular community. Let's say you worked in Kanyohi in a dentist's office. You filled out a survey and you would be then linked up with your local hospital in Kanyohi. The example would be Adventist Health Castle and you would go to castle and they would administer the vaccine there. The pharmacies, the big ones, CBS and Walgreen, they've been vaccinating people in the long term care facilities. So that 1A is pretty much taken care of. There are still some physicians and people in long term care facilities who are getting their shots. But we have now, as you know, moved into phase 1B. And phase 1B are our capuna, 75 and above, right? We want to get them vaccinated. And the essential workers, but first of all, back to 1A. Yes. How did everybody know to go to peer-to-peer? The thing is, it was like, wasn't the windward side? These are kind of neat, great questions so we can be faster. But didn't the windward side get it going fast and got really into it and productive before we did over here in Honolulu? And then all of a sudden, everybody showed up at peer-to-peer on a Friday, like 8,000 people or so. So what was that startup? Well, first of all, the 1A, like there was no open registration for the general public. If you work in a hospital, you got vaccinated at your hospital. If you work at the private health, you know, the independent dentist office or the physical therapist office, you went to our website, which I encourage everyone to visit, which is hawaiiCOVID19.com. And there was what's called a survey there. And you would go to the website and fill out the survey. You would say, I have a dentist office in Kaimukki. I have 12 employees. 10 of them would like to be vaccinated. And we would receive that information. We would then send that to the hospital. And that hospital would then schedule with that dentist office for those 10 people to come in at a designated time at a designated place and be vaccinated. So that was all before these pods opened up. Thank you for that. Yeah. And I can keep talking through that timeline. And I'd also like to talk about the different ways we're administering the vaccines because so much attention is given to the pods, yeah? Because, you know, it's seen as this mass vaccination site, but the pods or points of dispensing are really just one of the four ways that we are getting the vaccines out there. But let's throw that timeline back up there if we can. The pod, the four, those are the places. So those are peer two, those are, what are the points of dispensing, yeah. So the points of dispensing are actually number four on our list of methods. So the first way we were getting shots out there was the long term care facilities. And we've talked briefly about that, how the big pharmacies would go out and they would go to the Pololo Chinese home or Hawaii retirement home or something. And they would go to these retirement communities and they would administer the vaccine on site. So that was one way. There are more than 1,700 different small care homes or long term care facilities around the state. Now, there are people living in these homes, maybe three, four people, two, three, four people at each one of these more than 1,700 homes who need to be vaccinated and they're in 1A. Well, they're not going to end up at, you know, you can't have them travel down to, say, the Blaisdale or peer two. A lot of these people are homebound. So we need to get the vaccine to them, deliver it to them. And so we've partnered with a lot of the small pharmacies, these small independent pharmacies go out armed with the doses and the vaccines, the syringes, and they go out into each one of these almost 2,000 homes around the state to administer one by one by one. The vaccine. So that's our second way of getting the vaccine out. The large long term care facility, the small long term care facility, and then there are the very important federally qualified health care centers like Y-N-I Coast Comprehensive Health Center or Waikiki Health or K-E-O-Mama. And we are working with those different organizations in the communities because they serve sometimes communities that have trouble, maybe English as a second language, or they have different socioeconomic disadvantages that preclude them from getting some of the information that we'd like them to have. So we work with these wonderful partners to reach all these different communities that the FQHC serve. And then we get to the pods, which is really the fourth and final approach to getting the shots in arms. And our first pods were called closed pods. Those were in the hospitals, only open to those health care workers, right? And then we had a pod like Leeward Community College. That was for first responders, fire, police, paramedics. And now the pods that everyone thinks are these mega or larger pods. And those are the peer twos and those are the blazed elves. So those now open up to a bit of a broader population. But if you go back to the timeline, right now, we're in 1B. So it's the Kapuna 75 and above. And it is the frontline essential workers. And there are in the community of 230,000. The pods. Okay, so we understand that. And all the people that were serviced within those pods who are in the highest level of the tiers, right? So they're in tier 1A. All the people that were served in that beautifully, it sounds like, in those smaller facilities and larger facilities, but you're still following the ranking of the tiers. And it's very important that people do that. You know what we need out there is a lot of aloha for the people who might be in front of you in line, because a lot of people want to get the vaccine. But it would really be great if everyone could just step back, really identify truly where they are in the succession of who should get the vaccine first. And if someone's in front of you, let's let those Kapuna, let's let those frontline essential workers, you know, get it maybe before you if you're not, you know, in that category. We've had some kind of line skipping and line jumping. And we'd like to have everybody to kind of kind of wait their term. The vaccine's coming and everyone's going to have a shot at it. It's absolutely free. But let's take care of those high risk people first. And the people that we need to stay well so they can serve our community, people like, you know, Hawaiian electric workers and the judges and the public defenders and the prosecutors, those kind of the pollution and the firemen, we need those people to be back, the teachers. And we, yeah, okay, in regard to that, there are people that have tried to go to the place. And finally, Hawaii's gotten the message that you must have an appointment. But when I, but I've heard that, for instance, at the pods, when we had the rainy days, the one that I guess it was a week ago, Monday, Tuesday, these tremendous rains and big traffic dial, then people didn't show up for their, for their, their shots, their shot appointment time. And so I think that, yes, that was a nice break for the people that are distributing and working so hard there. And I appreciate that very much and want them to keep going and eat their spinach. But what about taking advantage of those openings that are going to occur? Is there any back plan that allows that opening to go used instead of unused? Yeah, no. First of all, we're not wasting any vaccine. And I hadn't heard that people were not showing up for the vaccine. I certainly would not miss my opportunity if I had. Because they couldn't because of the rain and that it just slowed down everything. Okay, understandable. But I Tell tales out of school. But anyhow, I have heard that. Well, I would encourage everyone to try to make their appointment. Don't show up too early, but maybe 15 minutes before your appointment time show up. We don't want to traffic jams. But I'll tell you what we're not doing is we're not wasting vaccine. In fact, we're actually squeezing often an extra dose out of, you know, the Moderna The Moderna comes in a vial with five doses, excuse me, 10 doses. The Pfizer has five. We're often squeezing a sixth one out. So if we get a what's called a pizza box of Pfizer doses, there are supposedly 975 doses in there. But we're often getting at least 100 more than that. And so that's that's great news. And then at the end of the day, if there are one or two left over and but you've already broken into the vial. And so you don't want to throw it out because that that's like liquid gold, you know, that's precious cargo. They have waiting lists and they will call people and say, hey, come on down. So we're really trying hard not to waste anything That backdrop of getting people in who may not have had they may not have made an appointment yet or not couldn't couldn't do that for some reason. Well, you know, I just think that the tears are really helpful, as you say, and if people take the time to look at the tears and the rankings of all the people, of course, it does raise issues as to, for instance, with the balance. That has to be established across our country in the states about the formula and the distribution of the of the vaccinations and the reopening of the economy. I mean, we have an issue here regarding women at home with children and women who've even given up their jobs and I'm sure some fathers that have had to do also. But we've got the teachers being ambivalent about getting back into schools where they're going to be with all these youngsters and we still don't know enough about their their contagion levels or their infection levels or any of that. So my heart goes out to all of the teachers are trying to make these decisions. Well, now some of them are getting vaccinated and I understand is this correct that Hawaii is accommodating educators and actually any school personnel that have to do face, you know, can for our next to children during the day. So what's going on in Hawaii with the deep because it seems to me we've got to get the schools. We got to open the schools in order to really get the workforce back in place and people making absolutely we not only need to get our kids back in to educate them. But you know, a lot of parents have had to sacrifice the work front because they've got to stay home with their kids during the day because the kids aren't going to school. So got to get the kids back in school got to get the parents back on the job. And teachers are right there in phase one be they are being vaccinated. Now I think at all counties. We are working directly, for example, with the Department of Education, we asked the department give us lists of people who you prioritize as people who should get the vaccine. You know, as early as possible, they then give us names we received more than 18,000 names already from the Department of Education, we then take those names and we farm them out to the different points of dispensing and then the teachers are contacted via email. An appointment is scheduled they're given a date and a time and and the teachers are now being vaccinated very important that that we not only protect their health. We protect the kids help and we get everybody kind of back where they want to be, which is in the classroom and on the job. I know, and this is very reassuring and my because we go and even into the grocery stores or the drug stores and there's all kinds of plastic up and dividers and all of that. And of course their ventilation systems purportedly are updated and are are changed and cleaned and and will catch this virus. But that's not been the case in the schools that there hasn't been a budget to get in there and really ramp up those ventilators and make sure that their surfaces are protected from You know, with or their their exchanger, you know, their kids are surrounded with these plastic Yeah, There's I just saw something over the weekend that suggests that that in a lot of places students are actually a lot safer in school than they are at home and and that's a credit to the work that educators have done in in Spacing the kids out and actually in a lot of places they have found ways to to segment the youngsters and make sure they keep the masks on we are our Dock D which is disease control division has gone out to some schools, they went out to schools and wine I they went out to the Campbell area and they they spend time working with the Department of Education. And and examining the things that the DOE has done to protect our cakey and actually our DOE gets very high marks for the work they've done so we're encouraged they've got blended learning going on already right depending on what kind of Infection Really, everybody's the beginning teacher when it comes to virtual. Okay, so we're all right back at pretty, you know, base zero, you know, cut competence and making all of that happen because everybody's got much better and quickly over this time, but it has been a loss for the youngsters and I'm sure we're going to see all of this if we ever get back to Doing the tests again, but I think that bringing those the DOE acknowledging and you all seem that you know a high school teacher can see 150 kids every day. I mean 150 people, you know, and be close to them for a long time. So, you know, you have five six classes like that and then you go out to do coaching of something or rather. So, this is really been close and then with the little with the grade schoolers, you know, you, they're coming from multi generational homes and not really like teenagers usually have their own spaces, you know, so we have all of that clustering of intergenerational families so it's not, it's the, it's very dangerous for everybody going both ways like you said kids in some respects are much safer in school and some are more safer at home and so they're going both ways it's a two way street for this virus to just have a gangbusters day going wherever it wants. So anyway, those are the kinds of things that have haunted me about teachers being put in the position of being forced or encouraged to get back to school or lose their paycheck or something and then they have to expose themselves in such a really terrible way, really. So, so we're excited the fact that teachers are now being inoculated and, and, and we're going to continue to have to work through this phase one be throughout the month of February, but we look forward to being able shortly thereafter to get into one C, which is people to survive and above and other essential workers who have not yet qualified and been vaccinated. And sometime this summer, we expect that we'll be able to open it up for anybody over the age of 16 and older, who wants to be vaccinated. So we're excited about those things. I'll tell you. Yeah, there's a question. So let me ask the question to you. If the vaccines are free. Why do I have to present my health care insurance when I register. You, you actually don't. Some of the providers would like you to bring your insurance card with you, but you absolutely don't. In fact, I have a 90 year old mother, and it warms my heart because I was able to take her to get vaccinated. She got her first shot of Moderna, and I took her to one of our clinics, which was over on the windward side that she registered for and she did not bring her insurance card and absolutely nobody will be denied or should be denied a vaccine because they don't have insurance. These vaccinations these doses, they are a public commodity. And we can't deny it to someone who just because they don't have insurance. Absolutely not. This needs to be given to the rich and the poor across the board. Very good. Well, we're getting a little short on time here. So let me ask you, knowing there's no crystal ball. But can you suggest what it's going to be like going forward. I mean, I hear a lot of success already, and much accomplishment. So what do you see going ahead and what roadblocks or impediments might actually pop up? Maybe they wouldn't even be here in Hawaii. Maybe they'd be federal. But anyway, what do you see is our path forward? Well, right now we're dealing with a supply shortage, but we certainly hope that we have more doses coming in before long and as that ramps up, but we will get the shots in arms. We've just got to stick with the plan. Keep going through phase one B, one C, and sometime this summer hopefully available to everybody. It's important that everyone know that even after they get a vaccination, they should continue to wear the mask to physical distance and avoid large gatherings. We really want to use all the tools in our toolbox. The vaccine is one of them, but certainly the mask, the physical distancing, those are other very important tools. The vaccine is not a panacea, but used in concert with the other things. I think we're going to be able to beat COVID-19. And one quick message, there's a big football game coming up, and we know that some people traditionally like to get together and have a big party to watch that football game. This year would be a bad year to get together and do that. Try to watch it home with just people who are already in your household bubble, and that will prevent you from being exposed to other people and perhaps sharing COVID-19. What about a few big screens up in Alamoana Park or Cape Elani? Outdoor is way better than indoor. The air helps dissipate the droplets in the air, so that would be a better idea. But again, big gatherings, not a good idea. Best just to stay home and cheer for your team, because we all want to be around next year for next year's game. Well, it's getting to be a low hot time here and we'll have to close and appreciate your projections and also your admonition to watch the Super Bowl at home with your own bowl of popcorn or whatever treat you really like. And I know there are many treats that you like and can have there easily, even easier than being outside or at someone else's house. But this is the state of Hawaii program on ThinkTech, live streaming network. And we've been talking remotely with Brooks Baer, who's spokesperson from the Department of Health here in Hawaii. And we appreciate all of the information he has shared and we look forward to continuing to see a tremendous accomplishment coming out of that agency in our state government. Thank you so much, Brooks. Thank you, Stephanie. We'll keep working on it. We really want to protect people and save lives. Thank you for this opportunity and be well. Aloha. See you in two weeks on Mondays. It's the state of the state of Hawaii. Mahalo for your attention.