PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — According to acting Pennsylvania Health Secretary Alison Beam, there’s been no shortage of vaccine doses delivered to the Philadelphia collar counties. But congressional leaders say Beam told them days ago that there was a problem and a solution on the way.
“It was like being gaslit,” said Democratic state Sen. Katie Muth, who represents parts of Montgomery, Chester and Berks counties. “We were told this was an alleged inequity. I thought to myself, ‘Maybe I don’t know how to do math or maybe my Excel formula is wrong.’ ”
Muth is calling on the Pennsylvania Department of Health to share the exact requests it sends to the federal government each week to show what amount is going where.
The department uses a weighted formula for its allocation — total population and total COVID-19 cases each account for 20%, while the population over 65 and total COVID-19 deaths each account each for 30%.
While Chester County Commissioner Josh Maxwell is pleased they received an actual formula from the department, he said southeastern Pennsylvania is about 100,000 doses behind where it should be — Chester County specifically.
He crunched the numbers based on the state’s formula: “Southeast Pennsylvania should have received about 25% of the vaccine allocation so far. To date, we’ve received about 21% of the allocation,” he said. “(Chester County) received about 25,000 less vaccine … given the Pennsylvania Department of Health’s metrics.”
Montgomery County Republican state Rep. Todd Stephens said the formula should be simplified.
“How many people are in the 1a population in each county, and what are the vaccination rates for that population? That’s what we need to know,” he suggested. “It ought to be focused on the 1a population because they’re the folks we’re trying to get vaccinated right now. To include total population and some of the other factors, to me, just doesn’t make any sense.
“Even if you’re going to consider the total population,” Stephens continued, “it seems pretty clear we are not receiving the allocation of vaccine that we should be.”
According to the lawmakers, Beam said on a conference call with them that no counties would be able to move into Phase 1b while there are counties still in 1a.
There is talk among Republican state lawmakers to have the National Guard take over allocation and allotment of the vaccine, but it’s unclear if that will move forward.
A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Department of Health said everyone is getting less vaccine than they want. And, he said, the math isn’t as simple as plugging in numbers, as the formula changed in February.