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DHS works to address vaccine hesitancy as eligibility expands

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Wisconsin public health officials are working to overcome vaccine hesitancy. Stephanie Schauer is Director of the Wisconsin COVID-19 Immunization Program.

“There’s a number of reasons why folks may not want to step up and receive the vaccine,” Schauer said.

Schauer said side effects are generally mild and a sign your body is responding, and that vaccines have been proven to be safe and efficacious in clinical trials.

“And we hope that that information reassures people, and encourages them that these are safe and effective vaccines, and avail themselves.”

On Monday, some two million additional state residents age 16 and up with a variety of underlying health concerns became vaccine eligible.

Get the COVID-19 vaccine that’s available to you

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A lot of people in Wisconsin and elsewhere wonder which coronavirus vaccine they should get.

The simple answer, according experts, is to get the one that’s available to you. “We have three different vaccines that were shown to be vastly superior to placebo, in carefully conducted trials, in multiple countries around the world. That’s the bottom line,” Wisconsin’s chief medical officer, Dr. Ryan Westergaard.

“When we have safe and effective vaccines, we recommend people use them, and we don’t make the determination or the recommendation of preferring one or the other,” Westergaard said. “The other thing to know, is that with respect to the most important outcomes, deaths and hospitalizations due COVID-19, all three of the vaccines were virtually 100 percent effective. So there was very little, there’s no variation among the trial participants, in preventing those most severe outcomes of death and hospitalizations.”

The Food and Drug Administration has granted emergency use authorization to three different vaccines. The two dose Pfizer and Moderna vaccines were approved in December. The single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine was approved in late February.

Democratic legislative leaders discuss prospects for marijuana legalization

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Democratic leaders in the Wisconsin legislature think the state may be edging closer to legalizing medical marijuana.

Sen. Janet Bewley

State Senate Minority Leader Janet Bewley (D-Mason) told WisPolitics on Thursday that she thinks a standalone bill to legalize medical cannabis could pass. “I believe it could pass as a standalone, but for now it’s in the budget.”

Assembly Minority Leader Gordon Hintz (D-Oshkosh) credits Governor Tony Evers for elevating the issue.

“I’m glad that he’s put it out there, I think the proposal alone accelerates the discussion,” Hintz told WisPolitics. “And I think we will eventually get there. I just don’t know if it’s in the next six months or the next decade.”

Republicans on the legislature’s budget panel have already rejected legalization through the budget process.

Rep. Gordon Hintz

Hintz said he’s discussed the legalization issue with officials in Colorado, where cannabis was legalized in a 2012 referendum. He said the consensus there is that a greater public education effort would have been helpful prior to the start of legal marijuana sales.

“There’s still a lot of people in the state that have had no exposure, no understanding, to who the proposal just sounds so radical, based on their 11th grade health class in the early 70’s,” Hintz said.

Republicans on the legislature’s budget panel have already rejected Governor Tony Evers’ proposed legalization through the budget process.

“I certainly don’t think that kind of a topic should be in as part of the budget, this session anyway,” state Senator Howard Marklein (R-Spring Green) said last month.

Senator Baldwin backs efforts to expand ACA coverage, Navigator programs

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Senator Tammy Baldwin is backing President Biden’s push to return funding back to the Insurance Navigator Program.

Baldwin says those funds will make it easier for people to get the coverage they need on the Healthcare Marketplace. 

“During a deadly pandemic we should be working to make it easier not harder for Americans to get the health care they need and that’s exactly what President Biden is doing.”

Former President Trump cut funding to the Navigator program during his administration.

Baldwin says she’s cosponsoring legislation that will reduce premiums and deductibles for low income families. “To expand Health Care coverage two more than 4 million Americans who are currently uninsured and reduce healthcare costs for millions of additional individuals who are already have coverage.”

Enrollment for the A C A marketplace is currently open through May 15th. 

State’s initial shipment of Johnson & Johnson vaccine will go to educators

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It’s going to take some time, for Wisconsin to begin receiving regular shipments of the newly approved Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine.

“What we have been told about J&J supply is we’ll get this initial 47-48 thousand doses, and then we’re not likely to see very much supply for the next few weeks. And more likely by the end of Mach to see a regular supply of vaccine,”  Department of Health Services Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Diijk said on Tuesday.

The state’s initial doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine have been allocated for educators as part of Phase 1B of the vaccination effort.

“This is a group we’ve prioritized, and we know they are all eager to get their vaccines. And so we’ve put them into our allocation for the school plan. This is going to help us move through the educator workforce more quickly, and that will open up for others coming behind them,” Willems Van Diijk said.

UW-Health update on COVID-19 vaccinations in Wisconsin

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Now that more people are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccinations, health professionals say it might be harder to find a time to get your shots.

UW Health Primary Care Director Dr. Matt Anderson says that some people may just need to keep calling to check. 

“I think that broadly I would recommend people go to the DHS vaccinator map that’s available on their webpage, be looking at who’s vaccinating their area and then you know they certainly can be contacting, whether it’s pharmacies or others, to find out what’s going on with that.”

Right now the start has about 50 percent of the over-65 population fully vaccinated, and those people will still have priority in getting their shots.  Dr. Anderson says teachers and childcare workers should check with their providers to find out when they can get the shot. 

“New eligibility groups means that the demand is going to go up. It’s important that we continue to think about how the supply matches up with that. But it’s a lot of opportunities for people to be vaccinated and so hopefully the supply will catch up with the demand here in the coming weeks.”

Dr. Anderson reminds people who have gotten the shot that they can still transmit COVID-19, so they should continue wearing masks and being safe. 

Wisconsin educators & child care workers will begin receiving COVID-19 vaccinations on Monday

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Wisconsin’s educators and child care workers will begin to get COVID-19 vaccines beginning on Monday, March 1, as part of Phase 1B of the state’s vaccination effort.

Department of Health Services Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk is asking for their patience.

“We cannot get every one of you a vaccine on March 1st. But you are all going to get a vaccine in the next 4-to-6 weeks, and we want to protect you,” Willems Van Dijk said Thursday.

“This is all going to happen within the next four to six weeks. It’s a relatively short period of time in the whole history of COVID. Every teacher is going to get vaccinated, and so we’ll get to all of them very quickly.”

As of Thursday, 48 percent of all residents 65 and older have received a first vaccine dose, and Willems Van Dijk says those older residents will continue to be prioritized for vaccinations.

Willems Van Dijk said Wisconsin school districts will be ranked 1-through-425, as DHS allocates COVID-19 vaccines to give to K-12 educators.

“We’re going to use the percentage of students in free and reduced hot lunch, and the percentage of students who are students of color as criteria for that,” she explained, adding that does not mean urban districts are being prioritized.

“Many of the school districts in our rural areas have very high rates of children on free and reduced lunch, Many of the rural parts of our state experience poverty at disproportionate levels as well.”

People in congregate settings – including prisoners – are also in Phase 1B, but will be prioritized behind educators and frontline workers in transit and food service.

Evers announces rental & utilities assistance for residents who’ve lost income during pandemic

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Wisconsinites who have lost income as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic may be eligible for assistance.

Governor Tony Evers says more $322 million in funding will be available, to help with rent, utilities and other services. Qualified applicants may receive up to 12 months of assistance, with rent and utility payments made directly to the landlord or provider. It’s funded through a federal program.

Eligible applicants include state residents who demonstrate a risk of experiencing housing instability, have seen their income reduced by the COVID-19 pandemic, and/or earn a household income at or below 80 percent of the county median income.

The state Department Of Administration will partner with community agencies to accept applications and distribute assistance.

Residents of Brown, Dane, Milwaukee, and Waukesha Counties and the cities of Madison and Milwaukee can apply directly to their local government’s rental assistance provider.
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Teachers to begin getting vaccinated March 1 in Wisconsin

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Wisconsin’s next wave of COVID-19 vaccine distribution, known as Phase 1B, begins on March 1st.

“As noted when we announced this group back in January, the top of the priority of the additional eligible groups are our educators and child care providers,” Department of Health Services Deputy Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk said Tuesday.

The state is on pace for its target of getting 50 percent of those 65 and older vaccinated with a first dose, in order to begin Phase 1b, according to Willems Van Dijk.

“We want our kids in school, we know a number of school districts have been in person since early in the year, and we know a number of additional school districts are moving in that direction,” she said. “And we know teachers work every day with a population that is not able to be vaccinated because of their age.”

Willems Van Dijke assured those 65 and older who have yet to receive a first dose that they will. Wisconsin is getting a larger allotment of COVID-19 vaccine. “This week we will have 115,000 first doses to distribute to vaccinators, which is a 64 percent increase from mid-January,” Willems Van Dijk said. “We also know that that we’ll have that same amount . . . for at least the next two weeks.”

Nearly half of people age 65 and over have been vaccinated, and the state plans to open 4 more community clinics over next 2 months

Second straight day of no COVID-19 deaths in Wisconsin

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For a second straight day, there were no deaths due to COVID-19 reported in Wisconsin.

On Monday, the U.S. as a whole surpassed 500,000 coronavirus deaths since the start of the pandemic, about 19 percent of the global total, although the U.S. accounts for just 4 percent of the world’s population.

In Wisconsin though, the state Department of Health Services reported no deaths for a second day on Monday. DHS reported 423 new cases, and as of Monday afternoon the seven-day average percent positive by test was 2.6%, the lowest in nearly a year.