LEONARDTOWN, Md. — The following statement was posted by St. Mary’s County Commissioner John O’Connor on Facebook.


“I understand the frustration of our residents when Annapolis caters to the beltway counties. Within 5 minutes of opening up the Vaccine Clinics 700 appointments were filled.


   Yes you read that correctly 700 for our ENTIRE County. Unfortunately the State of Maryland has saw fit to pull our allocation of Vaccine and redistribute it to “Regional Vaccination Facilities”


   This means places like Baltimore City and Prince Georges County.


   This is the lowest allocation of vaccine since week one when it was a trial for the Vaccine Clinic in the County.


      The State continues to operate by making bad decisions with a complete and utter lack of understanding of local issues and without input from our local Health Departments.


    Governor Larry Hogan has stated that our local health departments would know on Thursdays about the allocations.. Here it is again another Saturday that our Health Department was notified.


      I am sure that the Governor is being misinformed by his staff. Since notification on Thursday’s has rarely if ever actually happened.


      Eliminating local input from the decision-making process at the state level during such critical times is ineptitude at its best.


     These actions demonstrate an utter disregard for our collective responsibility as public servants, it compromises the trust our community needs to have in government at a time when government is charged with coordinating a response to the biggest crisis we have seen in decades.


      It is disrespectful to St Mary’s County residents and Marylanders as a whole who are now living through a new layer of stress and anxiety in trying to get access to vaccine.


     The entire situation dictated to us by the bureaucrats at the state level based on political means creates an even bigger burden on Local Health Departments who are charged with the welfare of the citizens at a local level and have been for decades.


   This is not going to get any better for our citizens and the continues unless the State gets their act together. I would like to thank Dr. Brewster and the St Mary’s County Health Department for their continued advocacy on behalf of the Citizens’ of St Mary’s County.”

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