Yahoo Movies Star-Telegram investigates: Here’s how UNTHSC failed to deliver on COVID vaccine work
In the chaotic early days of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout, Tarrant County called in back-up. The county agreed to pay up to $25 million to the University of North Texas Health Science Center, in exchange for the center’s help in vaccinating the county’s residents.
The Health Science Center viewed the contract as not only a way to help the community, but as an avenue to boost the center’s public image.
And then, after months of big plans and positive public marketing, the center ended the contract two months prematurely, drawing public criticism from two county commissioners. As the contract ended, Health Science Center officials said it was a success.
A Star-Telegram investigation, which included seven public records requests and review of more than 4,000 pages of documents, showed the center did not fully live up to its vaccination plans, which included a focus on vulnerable populations. It also uncovered a relationship between the county and the Health Science Center marked by miscommunication and power struggles.
Vision vs reality
The Health Science Center brought in a federal contractor, OptumServe, to run much of the vaccination work. In the contract between the center and OptumServe, the two entities sketched out a plan to administer more than a quarter of a million vaccinations in Tarrant County in seven months.
Over the actual five months of the contract between the county and the Health Science Center, the center was responsible for just over 23,000 vaccinations — less than 10% of what was envisioned with OptumServe.
The Health Science Center branded itself as “Leading Tarrant County’s COVID-19 response,” and both public meetings and internal emails indicate that top center officials were heavily focused on the center’s public image.
Despite its marketing, the center was responsible for about 3% of the total COVID vaccinations administered by the county and its partners by the end of July 2021, when the vaccination contract ended.
Homebound residents
One of the vulnerable populations that the center pledged to reach was homebound residents, who tend to be at higher risk of serious illness from COVID-19 and who face significant barriers to obtaining the vaccine.
To reach that population, the Health Science Center partnered with MedStar, with a plan to administer between 800 and 2,400 in-home vaccinations. In the end, the center supplied MedStar with 43 referrals, according to the center’s final report to the county.
A MedStar spokesperson said that of those referrals, 23 to 24 people were actually vaccinated.
Residents of color
The Health Science Center’s vaccination work also aimed to specifically break through vaccination barriers that disproportionately affect communities of color.
The percentage of Hispanic residents vaccinated by the Health Science Center roughly reflects the county’s Hispanic population – 33% of the center’s vaccinations, or about 7,600 shots, went to Hispanic people, compared to census data that shows that Hispanic residents make up 30% of Tarrant County.
But the center did not proportionally reach Black residents. Of the 23,265 vaccinations, less than 11% – just shy of 2,500 shots – went to Black residents. Census data shows that Black residents make up 18.5% of Tarrant County.
Community advocates, including Fort Worth school board member Roxanne Martinez, don’t believe the number of shots administered made a significant impact in those communities. Martinez said the 7,600 shots that went to Hispanic residents would be enough to cover only one neighborhood like her own.
“It was too little, too late for our community,” Martinez said.
Looking back
Officials from both the county and the Health Science Center told the Star-Telegram in recent interviews that the vaccination partnership was an overall success.
In a written statement, then-center president Dr. Michael Williams, who is now chancellor of the UNT system, said he’s “extremely proud of how HSC responded during the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Read more about how the Health Science Center’s work unfolded, and see emails between top officials, in the Star-Telegram’s full investigation, available exclusively to subscribers.
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