localag242 said:

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Sorry for the firestorm with question but how is state determining the distribution by county? A dartboard? From looking at map of vaccine availability what did Brazos county do or not do to get such lacking numbers of vaccine?

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I'll take "fail to have anything resembling a plan" for 800, Alex.

"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: I'm from the Government, and I'm here to help. " Ronald Reagan

Totally agree with you. Inexcusable.

Zoom and other methods of meeting are the "norm", but I can't help but think having the Brazos County vaccine coordinator living in New Mexico doesn't add to the potential miscommunications...

Wait. What?

Slocum on a mobile said:

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In other news, the "dry run" must have not gone well, or they vaccinated all their family and friends, and don't have any left. They have a "plan" to start next week. Washington County starts tomorrow. Edit to add: Washington County has 2x the number of vaccines that Brazos County got. That should tell you everything you need to know.

https://theeagle.com/news/local/officials-brazos-center-wont-be-open-for-covid-19-vaccinations-until-jan-25/article_555cefac-57b8-11eb-8572-472987df6c32.html

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At an absolute loss for words after reading that.

At least they had a band onboard the Titanic while they were rearranging the deck chairs.

trouble said:

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Wait. What?

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check the link.


This is code for " We are paying someone (who just happens to be one of our good ol' boy buddies) to, essentially, do nothing."

From the article :
""There's a pent-up demand out there if we can just get the vaccines in," he said. "This is a months-long project."

Yes, we knew vaccines were coming months ago so this should have been done months ago. The fact that a retired police officer is in charge of vaccine distribution while living in New Mexico is insane.

Goose61 said:

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I do feel bad for Col. Stewart, as he's been tasked with making a silk purse out of a sow's ear almost overnight. The fact that he was willing to take on a no-win situation that apparently no one locally was, says something.

it's not going to be easy to undo almost a year's of inaction and inertia overnight, especially within the constraints of the current situation, one as emotionally charged as this one.

I know I've been pot banging with the best of them on this thread, but at least he's trying (which is more than you can say about others).

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I don't feel bad for him.... I guarantee you, he is getting paid.... well.

If he was that into it, he'd have his backside IN Brazos county making stuff happen.

it's a boondoggle, period.

Goose61 said:

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I do feel bad for Col. Stewart, as he's been tasked with making a silk purse out of a sow's ear almost overnight. The fact that he was willing to take on a no-win situation that apparently no one locally was, says something.

it's not going to be easy to undo almost a year's of inaction and inertia overnight, especially within the constraints of the current situation, one as emotionally charged as this one.

I know I've been pot banging with the best of them on this thread, but at least he's trying (which is more than you can say about others).

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Do you have proof that no local wanted the job? I don't buy that. I find it hard to believe that they couldn't find a local to do the job. They have plenty of retired military in town, not to mention the people that worked or retired from A&M at all levels.

But lets say that is all true. Then hire somebody outta Houston. But no you gotta hire a somebody living in freakin' New Mexico.

Hell if you're gonna have a telework hire, then open it up to anyone in the country to apply.

this is straight up nepotism... period. What a joke.

Hell, I would take the damn job.

I had no idea he was in NM.

Goose61 said:

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BQ_90 said:

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Goose61 said:

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I do feel bad for Col. Stewart, as he's been tasked with making a silk purse out of a sow's ear almost overnight. The fact that he was willing to take on a no-win situation that apparently no one locally was, says something.

it's not going to be easy to undo almost a year's of inaction and inertia overnight, especially within the constraints of the current situation, one as emotionally charged as this one.

I know I've been pot banging with the best of them on this thread, but at least he's trying (which is more than you can say about others).

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Do you have proof that no local wanted the job? I don't buy that. I find it hard to believe that they couldn't find a local to do the job. They have plenty of retired military in town, not to mention the people that worked or retired from A&M at all levels.

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No, I don't, was just speculating.

Part of the problem is that the current state of vaccine distribution in Brazos County appears to be based on earlier inaction, and lack of planning prior to his appointment. Unfortunately, that's going to take some time to undo now, regardless of whose in charge.

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so because a bad decision was made to begin with, we gotta keep with it because it was a bad decision and made the process worse?

No you fire this guy and try somebody else, maybe somebody that actually lives in the 979 area code.

Or at the very least in the same time zone. Incredible.

Slocum on a mobile said:

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cavscout96 said:

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GSS said:

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Jim Stewart-vaccine coordinator

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you have GOT to be !@#*ing kidding me.....

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Brother, I'm from Booger County. This kind of stuff is normal up there. Maybe our media types will read this and ask some hard questions. They sure haven't so far though.

This is a good ole boy deal if I've ever seen one. "Let's hire Bubba in New Mexico, because we don't have a world class university with a School of Rural Public Health that has epidemiologists in it."

This place is a $&!%<# joke.

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I'd hire the students at A&M that run the Big Event to handle it. They can do a better job than retired good ol boy.

Slocum on a mobile said:

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cavscout96 said:

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GSS said:

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Jim Stewart-vaccine coordinator

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you have GOT to be !@#*ing kidding me.....

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Brother, I'm from Booger County. This kind of stuff is normal up there. Maybe our media types will read this and ask some hard questions. They sure haven't so far though.

This is a good ole boy deal if I've ever seen one. "Let's hire Bubba in New Mexico, because we don't have a world class university with a School of Rural Public Health that has epidemiologists in it."

This place is a $&!%<# joke.

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Someone should file a FOIA request to see what this cat is getting paid..... I bet some of our small business folks who've had to shut down permanently could get the job done...

I know it's an apples to grapefruit comparison, but Houston/Harris county vaccinated 14,500 folks in ONE day at a SINGLE location..... let that sink in.

cavscout96 said:

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I know it's an apples to grapefruit comparison, but Houston/Harris county vaccinated 14,500 folks in ONE day at a SINGLE location..... let that sink in.

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For an apples to apples comparison, look at the counties for Amarillo (Randall and Potter Counties). Potter has given at least the first dose to 9,965 out of 89,806 -- over 10% of the 16+ population. Randall has given at least the first dose to 15,275 out of 109,144 -- close to 15% of the 16+ population already. Now let's add those two counties together -- total 16+ population is 198,950 -- pretty similar to our 16+ population of 185,835. They have together vaccinated 25,240 with the first dose already.

Now let's talk about things locally. Brazos County has given at least the first dose to a whopping 5,731 out of 185,835 -- barely over 3% of the 16+ population.

Unfortunately this low vaccination rate by our county is going to affect the future allocation of vaccine, meaning we will lag well behind the other major metro areas of the state in terms of being able to vaccinate our population.


P.S. Amarillo opened its community vaccine clinic at the Amarillo Civic Center on December 30. Yes, December 30. No signup needed -- just walk in and go. They shut down the line if they run out for the day. Amarillo City Transit offers free rides to the clinic.

Someone above said something about leadership. Amarillo has it.

While I agree with the Aw shucks and on, don't delude yourself that the University is any better prepared to deal with this kind of task either. Experts at the University are more than likely really good in the theoretical and less so in the actual in my observations.

Yesterday I got my contact tracing call from Brazos County Health Department regarding my positive test. The gentleman couldn't have been any kinder, but I had to laugh at some of his questions.

One was "Did you attend the Texas Renaissance Festival?"

Seriously, BCHD? The last weekend of that was like 2 months ago.

Maybe that's an indication of tests from that time period still being reported, I don't know. But fact is if I had said that I had attended, the information wouldn't have been germane to my case at all.

I got an email yesterday from BCHD telling me what symptoms to watch for and how to avoid spreading COVID. I tested positive 16 days ago. Nothing like timely advice. Lol