FEELING THE PINCH
Officials unsure why region lags behind others in vaccination distribution, results
The arrival of the COVID vaccine in December provided hope that an end to the pandemic was near.
However, the rollout of the vaccine in Pennsylvania, particularly in the southeastern part of the state, continues to frustrate residents, vaccine providers and county officials.
Limited vaccine supply has made it difficult for people to find vaccine appointments and for vaccine providers that are dependent on the state’s weekly allocation of doses to make appointments available.
County officials in the region also share these frustrations as the state remains in Phase 1A of its vaccination plan.
Vaccine supply is limited across the U.S. and Pennsylvania, but some regions have been receiving higher allocations of doses per capita, resulting in a higher number of people vaccinated than other regions and counties.
The southeast was a target of the state’s focus in the early months of the pandemic. It was a hot spot for cases and the last to go green, fully reopen, in the state during the shutdown.
However, for anyone willing to travel outside of the their local area, vaccinations are available to any American anywhere they can get an appointment.
Based on vaccine allocations and the number of people vaccinated since December, the region does not appear to be receiving the same amount of attention when it comes to vaccine distribution.
“It does unfortunately come down to who you know, whether you get lucky refreshing your browser at the right time for a particular pharmacy and that’s the opposite of equity, that’s the opposite of fairness. Had we been provided the vaccines necessary … we’d be in a much cleaner and more sensible place for the public.”
— Delaware County Councilman Kevin Madden
With other regions and counties seemingly doing well with their vaccination efforts, why is the southeastern part of the state lagging behind?
Acting Health Secretary Alison Beam acknowledged during a media briefing Thursday that there have been flaws in the distribution in the southeast.
She said a meeting with representatives of counties in the region was scheduled for Thursday morning but was postponed so her staff could do a deep dive into the issue. She said the meeting would be rescheduled.
Not all counties in the region were invited to the meeting.
Delaware County
When combining the four suburban Philadelphia counties — Bucks, Chester, Delaware and Montgomery — there are approximately 2.5 million residents there, or 22% percent of Pennsylvania’s population without including Philadelphia.
Another way to look at this is that the four suburban Philadelphia counties have almost a fourth of Pennsylvania’s population,
not including Philadelphia, but have only received 14.5% of the state’s vaccine distributions. State health officials won’t say why.
Delaware County Council Chairman Brian Zidek said county officials were having hourly and daily conversations with state representatives and senators, and even had a discussion with Beam on Feb. 13 to outline how prepared Delaware County is to distribute the vaccine, that all that is needed is the vaccine supply itself.
“It does unfortunately come
down to who you know, whether you get lucky refreshing your browser at the right time for a particular pharmacy and that’s the opposite of equity, that’s the opposite of fairness,” Delaware County Councilman Kevin Madden said, adding that the process should have been streamlined. “Had we been provided the vaccines necessary … we’d be in a much cleaner and more sensible place for the public.”
He said he didn’t know if more vaccinations would have been distributed at this point, but that