11 Investigates speaks with Acting Secretary of Health

Pennsylvania’s Acting Secretary of Health answered many of your most asked questions in an exclusive interview with WPXI News.

Aaron Martin spoke with Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam about the state’s plan moving forward and what steps the state is taking to improve how Pennsylvanians can access the vaccine.

“Very soon, we’ll have a tool that not just tells you may not be in 1A, but tells you what phase you should be in and then allows you to be contacted when the Commonwealth progresses to that phase,” Beam said.

Beam discussed the phased distribution of the vaccine, saying the goal was to get it out to those most at-risk first.

11 Investigates gets your questions answered by Acting Pennsylvania Secretary of Health

“If you step back to our underlying premise with designing the phases, it has always been to make sure those that are most at risk can access the vaccine first,” she said. “Right now, we know that we have the seniors and those with underlying comorbidities putting a lot of pressure on the system to make sure they get vaccinated. We’re focused on taking that demand and channeling it and trying to make sure our providers rise to the challenge of really pushing out those vaccines as quickly as possible.”

For many, the issue isn’t so much what phase they fall in. Their issue is how do they get a vaccine.

“We’re working on making sure that analysis, the how do I get a vaccine, is also done as effectively as possible,” Beam said. “This is where we are really closely contacting and in close conversations with our state counterparts. There have been systems and a lot of them have struggled as well, to be quite frank. We want to make sure if we’re building, we’re building something that’s going to enhance user ability, not creating another challenge for folks accessing that vaccine.”

While the state has taken a little bit more of a hands-off approach when it comes to allowing providers to work directly with their patients in terms of getting vaccination sign-ups, Beam said the department is continuously looking at improvement, leaving the door open to create a centralized registration system for Pennsylvanians to sign-up for the COVID-19 vaccine.

“With that being said, the centralized registry and the interest in it is something we are constantly exploring,” she said. “That plan relies heavily on vaccine supply from the federal government ... Which continues to fall well short of demand.”

Beam confirmed the state will receive 175,000 first doses from the federal government this week and the same amount next week. But if a third vaccine gets temporary approval from the FDA, supply could increase quickly.

“I think everyone in Pennsylvania is standing at the ready for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine to get its EUA so we can have a robust supply. That also opens up pathways where there would only need to be one vaccine instead of two, which really allows us to reach populations that may just not be able to conform to what is necessary for a two-part vaccination,” she said.

But millions of Pennsylvanians who now qualify for Phase 1A are still unable to sign up, particularly those without internet access. But Beam points to 1-877-PA-HEALTH as a resource, despite the state not having a system to register over the phone.

As far as staffing, Beam detailed the department’s improvements moving forward.

“The staff reallocation is something we’ve worked through the last week. Hopefully what they will be able to experience is not so much hold time or any of the claims you made about not necessarily getting resolution to their inquiry. Most of all, we want to make sure their calls are getting answered, they’re getting the assistance they need and their getting it as quickly as possible when they do contact us,” she said.

Pennsylvania’s general assembly is currently considering a bill to get the national guard more involved in the logistics of the rollout, something Beam is hesitant to support at this point.

“My counterpart Director Patfield at the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency is always in close contact with the National Guard thinking through how they can help with any sort of support logistics. But we want to make sure that whatever we do, we don’t compromise what’s already an investment in our long-term care facilities,” Beam said.

PEMA is working on the possibility of mass vaccination clinics, something Beam says remains on hold due to vaccine supply.

RAW INTERVIEW: 1-on-1 interview with PA Health's Acting Secretary Alison Beam RAW INTERVIEW: 1-on-1 interview with PA Health's Acting Secretary Alison Beam

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