THE BULLETIN • MONDAY, JANUARY 11, 2021 A3
TODAY
Today is Monday, Jan. 11, the
11th day of 2021. There are 354
days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On Jan. 11, 2020, health authori-
ties in the central Chinese city of
Wuhan reported the first death
from what had been identified
as a new type of coronavirus; the
patient was a 61-year-old man
who’d been a frequent customer
at a food market linked to the
majority of cases there.
In 1861, Alabama became the
fourth state to withdraw from
the Union.
In 1908, President Theodore
Roosevelt proclaimed the Grand
Canyon National Monument (it
became a national park in 1919).
In 1913, the first enclosed se-
dan-type automobile, a Hudson,
went on display at the 13th
National Automobile Show in
New York.
In 1927, the creation of the
Academy of Motion Picture Arts
and Sciences was proposed
during a dinner of Hollywood
luminaries at the Ambassador
Hotel in Los Angeles.
In 1935, aviator Amelia Earhart
began an 18-hour trip from
Honolulu to Oakland, California,
that made her the first person
to fly solo across any part of the
Pacific Ocean.
In 1943, the United States and
Britain signed treaties relin-
quishing extraterritorial rights
in China.
In 1964, U.S. Surgeon General Lu-
ther Terry issued “Smoking and
Health,” a report that concluded
that “cigarette smoking contrib-
utes substantially to mortality
from certain specific diseases and
to the overall death rate.”
In 1978, two Soviet cosmonauts
aboard the Soyuz 27 capsule
linked up with the Salyut 6 or-
biting space station, where the
Soyuz 26 capsule was already
docked.
In 1989, nine days before leav-
ing the White House, President
Ronald Reagan bade the nation
farewell in a prime-time address,
saying of his eight years in
office: “We meant to change a
nation and instead we changed
a world.”
In 2001, the Army acknowl-
edged that U.S. soldiers killed
an “unknown number” of South
Korean refugees early in the
Korean War at No Gun Ri, but
said there was no evidence they
were ordered to do so.
In 2010, Miep Gies, the Dutch
office secretary who defied Nazi
occupiers to hide Anne Frank
and her family for two years and
saved the teenager’s diary, died
at age 100.
Ten years ago: During a
public Mass at St. Odilia Cath-
olic Church in Tucson, Arizona,
several hundred mourners
remembered the victims of the
shooting rampage that killed six
people and wounded Rep. Ga-
brielle Giffords. David Nelson, 74,
who co-starred on his parents’
popular TV show “The Adven-
tures of Ozzie and Harriet,” died
in Los Angeles.
Five years ago: Gunmen
stormed into a Baghdad mall,
killing 18 people; the Islamic
State group claimed responsibil-
ity. Northern Ireland lawmakers
appointed Arlene Foster as the
first female leader of their unity
government. No. 2 Alabama
outlasted No. 1 Clemson in a
45-40 victory in the College
Football Playoff championship
game. Baseball Hall of Famer
Monte Irvin, 96, died in Houston.
William A. “Bill” Del Monte, the
last survivor of the devastating
San Francisco earthquake and
fire of 1906, died at a retirement
home in nearby Marin County at
109 years old.
One year ago: Iran admitted
that its military had “uninten-
tionally” shot down a Ukrainian
jetliner three days earlier, killing
all 176 people aboard; the
statement blamed “human
error” for the shootdown, which
took place just hours after Iran
launched a barrage of missiles at
U.S. forces.
Today’s Birthdays: Former Ca-
nadian Prime Minister Jean Chré-
tien is 87. Actor Mitchell Ryan is
87. Actor Felix Silla is 84. Movie
director Joel Zwick is 79. Country
singer Naomi Judd is 75. World
Golf Hall of Famer Ben Crenshaw
is 69. Singer Robert Earl Keen
is 65. Actor Phyllis Logan is 65.
Musician Vicki Peterson (The
Bangles) is 63. Actor Kim Coles
is 59. Actor Jason Connery is 58.
Former child actor Dawn Lyn (TV:
“My Three Sons”) is 58. Rock mu-
sician Tom Dumont (No Doubt)
is 53. Movie director Malcolm D.
Lee is 51. Singer Mary J. Blige is
50. Musician Tom Rowlands (The
Chemical Brothers) is 50. Actor
Marc Blucas is 49. Actor Amanda
Peet is 49. Pop singer Cody Simp-
son is 24.
— Associated Press
STATE & WORLD
COVID-19 | Distribution dilemmas
Vaccine rollout confirms health officials’ fears
“The recurring theme is the lack of a national
strategy and the attempt to pass the buck down
the line, lower and lower, until the poor people at
the receiving end have nobody else that they can
send the buck to.”
BY MICHELLE R. SMITH AND CANDICE CHOI
Associated Press
PROVIDENCE, R.I. — Public health officials have
sounded the alarm for months, complaining they do
not have enough support or money to get COVID-19
vaccines quickly into arms. Now the slower-than-ex-
pected start to the largest vaccination effort in U.S.
history is proving them right.
As they work to ramp up the shots, state and local
public health departments across the U.S. cite a vari-
ety of obstacles, most notably a lack of leadership from
the federal government. Many officials worry they are
losing precious time at the height of the pandemic,
and the delays could cost lives.
States lament a lack of clarity on how many doses
they will receive and when. They say more resources
should have been devoted to education campaigns to
ease concerns among people leery of getting the shots.
And although the federal government recently ap-
proved $8.7 billion for the vaccine effort, it will take
time to reach places that could have used the money
months ago to prepare to deliver shots more efficiently.
Such complaints have become a common refrain
in a nation where public health officials have been left
largely on their own to solve complex problems.
“The recurring theme is the lack of a national strategy
and the attempt to pass the buck down the line, lower
and lower, until the poor people at the receiving end
have nobody else that they can send the buck to,” said
Gianfranco Pezzino, who was the public health officer in
Shawnee County, Kansas, until retiring last month.
Federal promises
Operation Warp Speed, the federal vaccine pro-
gram, had promised to distribute enough doses to im-
munize 20 million people in the U.S. in December. It
missed that target, and as of Friday, about 6.6 million
people had received their first shot. About 22 million
doses have been delivered to states.
The American Hospital Association has estimated
that 1.8 million people need to be vaccinated daily
from Jan. 1 to May 31 to reach widespread immunity
by the summer. The current pace is more than 1 mil-
lion people per day below that.
President-elect Joe Biden on Friday called the rollout
a “travesty,” noting the lack of a national plan to get doses
into arms and reiterating his commitment to administer
100 million shots in his first 100 days. He has not shared
details and was expected to discuss the effort this week.
His office announced a plan to release most doses right
away, rather than holding second doses in reserve, the
approach taken by the Trump administration.
The Trump administration defined its primary role
— Gianfranco Pezzino, a recently retired
public health official in Kansas
needed to deploy a vaccine. The money was not ap-
proved until the end of December.
Yi-Chin Lee/Houston Chronicle file
Houston Health Department nurse Alicia Meza prepares a
COVID-19 vaccine dose on Jan. 3.
as developing coronavirus vaccines and delivering
them to states, which would then take over and ensure
that vaccine doses traveled “the last mile” into arms.
Each state had to develop its own plan, including is-
suing guidelines for who gets vaccinated first. Several
health experts complained about that approach, say-
ing it led to confusion and a patchwork response.
“Let’s just say that I was disappointed how they
handled testing, and the vaccine deployment has re-
minded me of how disappointed I was when they han-
dled testing,” said Dr. Mysheika Roberts, health com-
missioner in Columbus, Ohio.
‘Not going to be seamless’
Several public health officials and experts say they
believe some of the early glitches are being smoothing
out. Marcus Plescia, chief medical officer for the As-
sociation of State and Territorial Health Officials, said
the slow start should not be surprising given the im-
mense scale of the task.
“It was not going to be seamless,” he said.
Still, Plescia said the federal government could have
done more ahead of the rollout — such as releasing
billions of dollars earlier to help with staffing, technol-
ogy and other operational needs.
An ongoing investigation by The Associated Press
and Kaiser Health News detailed how state and local
health departments have been underfunded for de-
cades. Public health officials have warned since the
spring that they lacked the staff, money and tools they
STATE & WORLD BRIEFING
Tatan Syuflana/AP
An Indonesian investigator inspects parts of Sriwijaya Air Flight 182,
which crashed in the waters off Java Island, on Sunday.
Indonesian divers find parts of plane; 62 presumed dead
Authorities said they determined the location of the crash site
and black boxes of a Boeing 737-500 on Sunday, a day after the
aircraft apparently crashed into the Java Sea with 62 people on
board shortly after taking off from Indonesia’s capital.
Officials believe they identified the location of the flight data
recorder and cockpit voice recorder. Earlier Sunday, search and
rescue operations resulted in parts of the plane being found in the
sea at a depth of 75 feet. Rescuers pulled out body parts, pieces of
children’s clothing and scraps of metal from the surface.
The plane disappeared Saturday afternoon. It was en route
from Jakarta to Pontianak, the capital of West Kalimantan prov-
ince on Indonesia’s Borneo island, on a flight that was expected
to take around 90 minutes. It was still unclear what caused it to
crash. There was no sign of survivors.
Indonesia, a densely populated island nation, has been plagued
by transportation accidents on land, sea and air. The United States
banned Indonesian airlines from operating in the country in 2007
but reversed the decision in 2016.
Pompeo relaxes U.S. diplomatic rules regarding Taiwan
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Saturday the State
Department is voiding longstanding restrictions on how U.S. dip-
lomats and others have contact with their counterparts in Taiwan.
China’s state media lashed out Sunday, accusing Pompeo of “seek-
ing to maliciously inflict a long-lasting scar on China-U.S. ties.”
The Trump administration has sought to strengthen bilateral re-
lations with Taiwan. Pompeo said the State Department has created
complex restrictions when it comes to contacts between the two
parties. He said those actions were taken to appease the Commu-
nist regime in Beijing. “No more,” Pompeo declared in a statement.
The Chinese government maintains that mainland China and
Taiwan are parts of “one China,” though the island is self-governing.
Ruptured sprinkler floods new Multnomah courthouse
An overhead sprinkler ruptured at the Multnomah County
courthouse in downtown Portland early Saturday morning, caus-
ing “extensive damage to multiple floors” of the recently com-
pleted $324 million building.
County officials said a sprinkler head on the seventh floor of the
building failed. The building sits at the east edge of the Hawthorne
Bridge. The cost of the cleanup isn’t yet known. The courtis ex-
pected to reopen Wednesday. The building opened in October.
— Bulletin wire reports
Vaccine distribution
Vaccine distribution involves a long, complex chain
of events. Every dose must be tracked. Providers need
to know how much staffing they will need. Eligible
people must be notified to schedule their shots, given
the vaccine’s handling requirements and the need to
observe people for 15 minutes after the shot — all
while social distancing is observed.
It’s difficult to plan too far ahead because the num-
ber of doses the state receives can fluctuate. Hospitals
cannot give all their workers shots on the same day
because of possible side effects and staffing issues.
Rhode Island health officials said it can take up to
seven days to get doses out to people once they are re-
ceived. Officials in several states, including Rhode Is-
land, Pennsylvania, Kentucky and New Jersey, said the
lack of supply is one of the biggest obstacles to getting
more people vaccinated.
The federal government has done little to provide
information resources that local officials can tailor to
their own communities, to address concerns of people
such as pregnant women or Black men living in rural
areas, said Dr. Michael Osterholm, an infectious dis-
ease expert at the University of Minnesota, who is a
member of Biden’s COVID-19 advisory board.
“You don’t need 50 different states trying to do this
kind of work. What you want to have is a smorgas-
bord of information sources,” Osterholm said.
Some states are getting creative. Oregon held a mass
vaccination event at the state fairgrounds with the help
of the National Guard. Gov. Kate Brown said it aimed to
vaccinate 250 people per hour. New Jersey planned to
open six vaccine “megasites” where officials hope more
than 2,000 people per day can eventually get their shots.
But without a federal plan, such efforts can amount
to “throwing spaghetti at a wall to see what sticks,” said
Chrissie Juliano of the Big Cities Health Coalition,
which represents metropolitan health departments.