EDITORIAL: RI’s Economic Recovery Is Being Sabotaged by Incompetent and Arrogant Vaccination Program

EDITORIAL: RI’s Economic Recovery Is Being Sabotaged by Incompetent and Arrogant Vaccination Program

Rhode Islanders want a return to normalcy and want to restart the economy.

Vaccinating Rhode Islanders quickly and efficiently is the path to recovery.

There is tremendous urgency. “There's a race against time -- vaccination against variance. Essentially the variants appear to spread quicker and will cause cases to rise instead of to fall during a time of vaccine,” said Dr. Michael Fine on Friday on GoLocal LIVE.

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Fine says it is critical to vaccinate vulnerable populations and the general public at the same time rather than leaving tens of thousands of doses on the shelves. “We need to be able to do two things at once,” said Fine, the former Rhode Island Director of Health.

The clock is on the field for key aspects of our economy. One of the critical drivers of Rhode Island’s economy is the tourism industry — 70,000 employees.

It is imperative for someone in government to take control to vaccinate Rhode Islanders quickly, to try and salvage a summer tourism season, salvage people's jobs and begin the economic recovery.

There is no one is in charge, no one is responsible. The current system of dueling governorships is dysfunctional and embarrassing.

Rhode Island's vaccination program has been flagged as a failure — news media across the country and locally have laid out the state’s failure to prepare and implement.

A GoLocal investigation unveiled on January 6 that the state’s vaccination plan submitted to the CDC in October was riddled with errors and embarrassing factual mistakes. 

Rhode Island needs to line people up and jab people’s arms. There are more than 50,000 doses unused in Rhode Island according to the CDC.

It is clear that Governor Gina Raimondo's administration has been incompetent at implementing a vaccination program and Dan McKee (if he ever assumes office) needs to step up the pace.

On Friday’s Zoom call of McKee's COVID Transition Team, it was still establishing its subcommittees. Now, six-weeks after Raimondo was named to serve as U.S. Secretary of Commerce by President Joe Biden, the McKee team have yet to issue a written vaccination plan. This is too slow, too plodding.

Leaders are letting down the state. They are failing. The state needs leadership now. Our health and our economy is at stake.