MOUNT PLEASANT, S.C. (WCBD) – Representative Nancy Mace (R-SC) on Wednesday visited a COVID-19 vaccine clinic at East Cooper Medical Pavilion.
She spent time learning about the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine, and got a firsthand look at the process.
Mace wanted to see the facility for herself to better understand what she could do to help, as South Carolina lags in vaccination effort:
“South Carolina for some reason is behind — is lagging behind other states in the ratio of vaccinations per hundred thousand. I’ve joined my colleagues in the delegation to ask…questions… and [find out] how we can get more doses for our citizens here in South Carolina.”
She shared her perspective on how to accelerate the process:
“The first thing we need to do is, one, be assured by the federal government… that South Carolina is caught up with the number of doses that we should have based on our population size. That’s number one. Number two, we also need to look at the regulations that are keeping us as a state from getting doses out to more people.”
The regulations Mace is referring to include those that prevent pharmacies from administering the vaccine on a wide scale. She says that those need to change.
Right now, MUSC is vaccinating roughly 3,000 phase 1a individuals per day.
But even among those that are eligible, scheduling an appointment has proven difficult. Some that were able to get appointments scheduled are upset because the appointments aren’t until March or April.
MUSC officials say that there is a workaround:
“We’re encouraging anyone that got one of those late appointments to go back in the system there are people canceling there are people rescheduling and if you go back in the system for the most part I think you can find an appointment in the next week if you want it.”
Mace also encouraged anyone that is having a problem scheduling an appointment to contact her office.
