Wisconsin Republicans tired of excuses over coronavirus vaccine rollout

(The Center Square) – When can people in Wisconsin expect to get the coronavirus vaccine?

Republicans at the Wisconsin Capitol asked that question of the Evers Administration time after time on Thursday. The Assembly Committee on Health pressed the Department of Health Services as to why the state is so slow in getting the vaccine into people’s arms.

“It seems to me that the process that’s in place is overly bureaucratic and and cumbersome,” Rep. Joe Sanfelippo, R-New Berlin said.

DHS Assistant Deputy Secretary Lisa Olson said it’s not the process. She blamed Wisconsin’s second-slowest in the Midwest rollout on the federal government and a lack of doses.

“We very much want to be moving faster,” Olson told lawmakers. “Folks are moving as quickly as they can during the course of the week.”

Sanfelippo said wanting to be faster is not good enough. He wants Wisconsin to actually be faster in distributing the vaccine.

“We need to tell the public here’s the day when we expect to do this group, here’s the date when we expect to do that group,” Sanfelippo added. “The minute we get a vaccine from the federal government it should be in and out the next day and in someone’s arm.”

DHS reported on Thursday that doctors have administered 195,152 of the 373,100 doses that have been sent to the state. Wisconsin has been allocated 607,650 doses, but many of those have not yet been shipped.

The Centers for Disease Control reported on Thursday that Wisconsin has vaccinated about 2.4% of its population. The national average is 3.1%. The CDC ranks Wisconsin 40th in the nation when it comes to vaccinations.

Sen. Van Wanggaard, R-Racine, has been critical of Gov. Evers and how his administration has handled the vaccine rollout for weeks. He told News Talk 1130 WISN’s Jay Weber on Friday that the delays all come from the governor’s office and it’s overly planned process.

“Rather than making a decision months or weeks ago, they determine group-by-group who gets the vaccine once a week,” Wanggaard said. “And then they ask for public comment. And then the next week the [vaccine] subcommittee makes a decision to finalize the previous decision. And then it goes to someone else to review, and is sent back to the subcommittee. And then someone else makes the decision. And then the process repeats.”

Wanggaard said, instead, Wisconsin needs to follow the lead of other states that have established broad guidelines and let local public health departments, hospitals, or even pharmacies offer the shots.

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