The challenging vaccination process makes me realize that we have to rethink our infrastructure for dealing with emergencies of any kind.
I felt the same way a few years ago when people from all schools and business places were dismissed early due to a weather event, the roads were clogged and it took me almost four hours to make a five-mile drive. It was clear, that if we had a deadly threat of some kind, many of us would not be able to get to safety.
So as I think of emergency situations, I am thinking about the best ways to keep people safe and the best ways to communicate that information.
Information lists and actions
As many have suggested with respect to the vaccine efforts, I am wondering what lists are the best lists to use to make sure that everyone has a vaccine in an accessible way. The best way to do this might be via county-actions in Massachusetts. Perhaps there needs to be county public health leaders that manage public health for their counties. Perhaps this already exists.
For example, a county public health leader could do the following:
- Have up-to-date population lists that include contact online/offline contact information
- Have a simple system of "call and response" where they can send out information, and receive a quick response
- Meld that "call and response" system with easy data analysis tools
- Have lists of local medical institutions, providers