| Displeased with vaccine rollout, SC senators ask governor to name COVID logistics czar BY ZAK KOESKE JANUARY 22, 2021 11:29 AM, UPDATED JANUARY 22, 2021 12:55 PM COLUMBIA, S.C. Two South Carolina senators have called on Gov. Henry McMaster to create a new director position responsible for heading up the state’s COVID-19 vaccine rollout and install South Carolina’s former adjutant general in the role.
In a letter to the governor Thursday, Sens. Nikki Setzler and Stephen Goldfinch said the state Department of Health and Environmental Control was not up to the task of coordinating South Carolina’s receipt, distribution and administration of vaccines and asked McMaster to issue an executive order appointing retired U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Robert E. Livingston Jr. to helm the state’s vaccine logistics efforts.
“It is our belief that it is crucial to enlist the assistance of a person with the experience and logistical knowledge to develop and implement immediately a statewide logistics plan for receipt, distribution, and injection of vaccines received by the state,” the letter reads. “This person should be highly qualified in order to coordinate efforts between providers, the National Guard, local government, DHEC, hospitals and the federal government.”
The senators’ request came hours after Goldfinch, a Georgetown Republican, spoke on the Senate floor about the need for a “quarterback” to lead the state’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution efforts.
“We are in a war against a virus that has killed 400,000 people in America, and I don’t know the person that’s quarterbacking this effort,” he said. “It’s time we figure out a way to get a quarterback to (coordinate the vaccine distribution effort) to get more vaccines in arms.”
Goldfinch and Setzler said the retired adjutant general would make an excellent choice for the job.
Livingston, who retired in 2019 after 40 years of military service, served as the state’s adjutant general from 2011 to 2019. As adjutant general, he led the state’s Military Department, overseeing the Army and Air National Guard, Emergency Management Division, State Guard and Youth ChalleNGe Academy.
Livingston said Friday that Setzler had asked him recently about getting involved in the state’s vaccine distribution effort and that he welcomed the opportunity to serve the state again.
“If you need me I’m there,” he said. “If you don’t, that’s fine, too.”
Livingston said he wasn’t in a position to comment on any issues with the state’s vaccine rollout or the need for a COVID-19 logistics director, but said he thought the governor had done a commendable job responding to the pandemic.
When reached for comment Friday, a spokesman for McMaster said the governor appreciated the input of all members of the General Assembly, but declined further comment on the senators’ request.
DHEC, whose handling of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout has come under criticism from lawmakers, was not provided a copy of the letter delivered to McMaster and a spokeswoman for the agency said Thursday night that they hadn’t been aware of it until contacted by a reporter.
The agency does not currently have a designated logistics director who oversees distribution and administration of the vaccine, but instead uses an “incident command structure” that brings DHEC officials together with officials from the state Emergency Management Division and the South Carolina National Guard to deal with logistical challenges, interim public health director Brannon Traxler said.
DHEC spokeswoman Laura Renwick said a vaccine task force steering committee meets weekly devotes a portion of each meeting to logistics issues, but that no specific problems related to the receipt, storage and allocation of doses to providers had come up.
“DHEC is unaware of any significant delays or issues related to the transport and delivery of vaccines to providers during the ongoing rollout of the state’s vaccine plan; the largest challenge to date is the limited doses of vaccine coming into the state,” Renwick said in a statement Friday. “Most hospitals and other providers receive their weekly vaccine doses directly from the federal government; there is minimal re-routing of shipments to get allocated doses to activated providers.”
As of Friday morning, South Carolina had received nearly 425,000 first and second doses of COVID-19 vaccine from the federal government and administered more than 211,000 of those doses to roughly 175,000 individuals, according to DHEC.
Lawmakers and hospital executives have expressed frustration with the pace of the vaccine rollout since shortly after doses began arriving in South Carolina in mid-December.
DHEC responded by expanding the pool of people initially eligible to receive the vaccine to include inpatients age 65 and older and all people 70 and older, and set a Jan. 15 deadline for frontline health care workers to schedule vaccination appointments after finding a significant number of them were delaying or declining vaccinations.
While far more South Carolinians are now eligible to get vaccinated than had been, the demand far outstrips the supply of vaccine, meaning it’s been a challenge to find a provider with appointments available.
The vaccine supply problem was exacerbated last week after states learned a federal reserve of doses they counted on receiving had been depleted and that providers would receive far fewer doses than they had requested.
As a result, some South Carolina providers have had to cancel or postpone vaccination appointments and DHEC officials are preparing to make do with a limited supply of COVID-19 vaccine doses for the near future. | 
