Pa. vaccine rollout off to a slow start
Gov. Tom Wolf is disappointed by the slow rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine in Pennsylvania — and for good reason: At the speed shots have been given since the vaccine began arriving Dec. 14, it’ll take years to vaccinate every resident of Pennsylvania.
Only adults are being inoculated, and doctors, nurses and people living in nursing homes are first in line for the shots. But if the slow start persists, it’s unlikely the public will begin getting vaccinated by late spring or early summer as Pennsylvania Secretary of Health Dr. Rachel Levine has predicted.
“I’m personally disappointed that the vaccine couldn’t have been rolled out faster and in a more efficient manner,” Mr. Wolf said during a briefing with Dr. Levine Wednesday. “Unless it increases rapidly, it’ll be months — not weeks — until it’s available to the general public.”
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that less than one-third of the total number of vaccine doses shipped to Pennsylvania had been administered as of Wednesday morning, not accounting for reporting delays. Vaccine doses began arriving in Pittsburgh and other parts of the state Dec. 14 and only 121,574 doses had been administered as of Wednesday, which compares with 388,450 doses received by hospitals and long-term care facilities in Pennsylvania over the past 16 days.
In early October, U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar predicted that 100 million shots would be available by the end of December, which the Trump administration later reduced to 20 million shots. But the CDC’s tallies indicate that less than one-quarter of those shots had been given as of Wednesday — 2.7 million doses administered compared with 12.4 million doses hospitals and nursing homes had received.
The delays may not be the fault of any one state.
“States undoubtedly have a
“States undoubtedly have a critical role to play in vaccine distribution,” Ashish K. Jha, physician and dean of the Brown University School of Public Health, wrote in a Washington Post op-ed piece Thursday. “But states alone can’t mount one of the largest vaccination efforts in recent history. The failure to vaccinate more quickly is tragic given that more than 3,000 Americans are dying from COVID-19 every day.”
Although vaccine distribution in Pennsylvania has been slowed by the Christmas holiday and snowstorms, Dr. Levine said Mr. Azar’s 100 million-shot goal by the end of 2020 was “always unrealistic.”
“The rollout will continue to improve,” she said, adding that Pennsylvania only received the bulk of the vaccine a week ago. Moreover, the federal government’s vaccine allotments to nursing homes change weekly, she said, which can complicate plans to administer the shots.
Under contract with the federal government, drugstore chains CVS Health and Walgreens are vaccinating residents and staff at longterm care facilities.
Pennsylvania has the sixth highest fatality rate for COVID-19 in the U.S. at 2.4%, which compares with a peak of 4% in New Jersey and an overall U.S. rate of 1.7%, according to Las Vegas-based Global COVID19 tracker. The federal government’s vaccine allocation was based on a state’s population.
Allegheny County Health Department Director Dr. Debra Bogen said Wednesday that delays in getting the vaccine program up and running had caused frustration.
“I know people are frustrated that the rollout has been slow,” she said. “We’re getting faster. Expect a huge improvement over the next few weeks.”
About 500 county employees have already been vaccinated by the Health Department and a bigger vaccine clinic is planned, she said, although “staffing is still an issue.”
The county is tapping volunteers from its Medical Reserve Corps to fill in, Dr. Bogen said.
Separately, the county Health Department reported 811 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday and 10 new deaths from the disease. Four of the deaths were associated with long-term care facilities, but the biggest number of new cases were in the 25-to-49 age group.
Since March 14, Allegheny County has recorded 53,809 cases of COVID-19 and 955 deaths from the disease.
Statewide, 8,992 new cases were reported Thursday by the state Health Department, which brought the total number of cases to date to 640,325. Also Thursday, 306 new deaths were reported from the disease for a total of 15,978 deaths to date.
Pennsylvania began receiving the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine for COVID-19 during the week of Dec. 14 and the Moderna vaccine the week of Dec. 21. Both vaccines require two shots in the arm.