PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — COVID-19 was still ravaging Philadelphia as the massive task of vaccinating 1.2 million adults got underway at the outset of 2021.
This was not one dose on a sugar cube, like the polio vaccine rollout in the 1950s — the only other time such an enormous effort was attempted. This was shots in arms, two each, while misinformation about it was spreading as aggressively as the virus itself. There was no roadmap, and, initially, very little help from the federal government.
A year later, 97.2% of Philadelphia adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine. Nearly 1 million residents are fully vaccinated.
“When I think about the level of vaccinations that we’ve been able to distribute and the lack of racial disparity in our vaccination numbers, I’m very proud,” said Mayor Jim Kenney in a recent interview with KYW Newsradio.
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He admits it was a rocky start. The first contract for a mass clinic, awarded after competitive bidding, went to a start-up led by a very young entrepreneur who managed poorly and exhibited spectacularly bad judgment in taking home “leftover” vaccine and injecting his friends on video. The city changed course quickly and mounted clinics itself, and it went on to outperform the state as a whole and most other large cities.
Yet, the prevailing narrative is that the Kenney administration botched vaccines.
For the mayor, that’s just one example of what he has come to accept as part of his job: He gets little credit for his successes, but his errors will be exaggerated.
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“Especially in Philadelphia, you can find people that want to complain about everything, and there’s nothing that’s ever right for them,” he said. “Everybody’s angry, everybody’s got a negative opinion about everything. I can’t fix that other than keep moving forward.”
He admits it has taken a toll, not just on his stress level and his ability to sleep, but on his interactions with people.
“Sometimes people think you’re aloof but sometimes you don’t want to encounter people because you don’t know what their reaction will be,” he said. “I’ve had people give me a hard time in restaurants. I’ve had people picket my home, my fiancee’s home, with guns. It’s not been normal.
“I judge myself by the way African-American women treat me when I’m out. It’s a lot of love, a lot of encouragement. Some white men aren’t as encouraging, but that’s what white men are these days.”
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How does he rate his own performance? It depends on which area you want him to judge.
“If I grade myself on expanding pre-K by 4,000 more seats, that’s an A+. If we grade ourselves on violent crime, I would probably say a C,” Kenney said.
The murder tally — well over 500 for the first time in decades — is clearly his biggest concern, but he continues to argue that much of it is out of his hands.
“One of the most frustrating things I see driving on I-95 are two big billboards that say ‘gun show, come buy more guns.’ And I can’t stop the billboard and I can’t stop the gun show from happening and I can’t stop people from acquiring military-style weapons, and that’s my frustration. I’m responsible — the government is responsible — for things I can’t control.”
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The mayor describes 2021 as “a roller coaster of things,” up and down, and although he’s known for a demeanor that appears to be perpetually grumpy, he has a knack for finding bright spots.
“When I think nearly 30,000 Afghans coming through Philadelphia, I tear up and get emotional because we’re like Ellis Island here,” he said in taking stock of the year.
And again, playing against the appearance he gives of hating his job much of the time, he said he is looking forward to the next two years.
“We have a lot to do,” he noted. “We’re hoping, omicron aside, that we’re starting to emerge from this. We’re getting back to some normal activities. I think we’re having a terrific holiday season. We have, on our Rebuild project, 68 of 72 projects completed or in progress. We’re rebuilding libraries, parks and recreation centers. Our pensions are still on track to be 80% funded by 2032.
“I’m not thrilled that we had to go through the two years we went through, but I’m looking forward to finishing on a positive note.”
Listen to the interview with Kenney in the player below.
Correction: An earlier version of this story misstated the number of Afghan refugees that have come through the Philadelphia International Airport.