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January 11, 2021

Public health chief Gifford mobilizes for statewide COVID-19 vaccination campaign

Photo | CT MIrror Deidre Gifford

Deidre Gifford holds the key to reopening businesses, returning kids to school and reviving some sense of normalcy in Connecticut in the year ahead.

As acting commissioner of the Department of Public Health (DPH), Gifford is in charge of the COVID-19 vaccination campaign as it unfolds across the state. She’s mobilizing the resources of her agency along with local health departments, hospital systems and individual doctors and nurses to get Connecticut back on track.

“We want everyone who wants a vaccine to get vaccinated. That’s a big logistical challenge,” Gifford said. “We have a lot of partners — ready, willing and able partners — in this mass vaccination program.”

This profile is part of HBJ’s 5 to Watch in 2021 special feature. Click here to see other top leaders we expect to make headlines in the year ahead.

At least 80% of the state’s 3.3 million or so residents must be vaccinated for COVID-19 for the population to achieve “herd immunity,” or the state in which enough people are immune so that the virus cannot easily spread.

“That would be an ideal number,” Gifford said of that 80% vaccination rate. She added that DPH and others are putting their focus into making sure those who want the vaccine get it, and that the public is fully informed at every step of the process.

Demand for the COVID-19 vaccine is so high in Connecticut that the state will likely not need to impose vaccination requirements, Gifford added.

“We’re expecting that many people will want to get vaccinated,” she said. “We don’t anticipate mandates at this point and time.”

Business help wanted

The business community can help in the vaccination campaign by cooperating with efforts to put essential workers at the head of the line, Gifford said. Healthcare employers were asked to submit rosters of frontline workers in the first phase of the campaign, and upcoming phases are expected to require lists of “critical infrastructure” and other vital workers.

Employers need to work with the DPH to make sure that critical workers are protected first as the vaccinations ramp up, she added.

Businesses also need to maintain their COVID-19 precautions even as the vaccine campaign expands. As expensive, inconvenient and burdensome as the restrictions are, they are necessary to ensure that infections are prevented in the unvaccinated as much as possible due to the persistent nature of the virus, DPH experts agree.

“If there’s any downside to the vaccine — and there really aren’t many — [it] is that people will assume that since we have vaccines on the ground, we can relax our guard on things like masks and social distancing,” Gifford said. “We really can’t.”

As for returning to normal, Gifford hesitated to make predictions.

“I think we all hope that this time next year things will look normal-ish, but there’s so many unknowns and so much that needs to happen between now and then,” she said.

Dual roles

In addition to running the DPH during the pandemic, Gifford also serves as the commissioner of the state Department of Social Services (DSS). Gov. Ned Lamont tapped Gifford to run the DPH in May citing both her background in epidemiology and ability to coordinate the two agencies.

With COVID-19 taking its most serious toll in nursing homes, Gifford said her dual roles allowed for quicker and more decisive action to deal with the crisis. As operator of the state’s Medicaid program, DSS is the main payer for nursing homes and DPH is a key regulator.

“Because this pandemic has such a significant impact, the two departments have really worked in concert,” Gifford said. “The more that the two departments are coordinating in their focus, in what they measure and more importantly in their programs, the more opportunities we have to be successful.”

Both agencies are also collaborating on the issue of racial and ethnic health disparities, which have come to the fore during the pandemic as minority communities have been devastated.

“I think that health disparities have really been highlighted and not in a good way,” Gifford said. “We’ve realized that previously disadvantaged populations have been more adversely affected by this pandemic than others.”

Looking forward to 2021, Gifford hopes the crucial role played by public health programs on issues like infection prevention and vaccinations is better appreciated by the population at large.

“The public in the United States has had a crash course in the vital nature of public health,” Gifford said of the pandemic crisis. “I hope that one lasting effect will be that public health gets back on the high priority list for the country.”

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