PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Philadelphia Health Commissioner Tom Farley confirmed Tuesday that it will be several months, possibly even a year, before everyone in the city who wants a COVID-19 vaccine can get one. But he's also concerned about people who can get one now and are turning it down.
Farley said about 28,000 Philadelphia health care workers have been vaccinated so far, using 39% of the doses the city has received. He attributed the slow rollout to the newness of the vaccine, its complicated storage requirements, the holidays and the logistics of injecting it.
"All this is being done, by the way, by a health care system that is still dealing with the pandemic and is very stressed with that and by a public health system that has received zero federal funds for the dissemination of the vaccine," he said.
Farley believes the distribution will get smoother. He said the real delay is in the relatively small number of doses the city is getting — about 18,000 a week.
"In a city of 1.6 million people, this is not enough. At this rate, it will take more than 12 months to vaccinate the entire population in the city of Philadelphia," he said.
He said it will take until February just to get through health care workers and nursing homes, known as group 1A. The city hasn't even finalized who's in group 1B yet.
He is also concerned by new data showing a lower rate of vaccination among African Americans in group 1A.
He said it's understandable, given history and experience, that African Americans are skeptical of the vaccine.
"But it's still a problem because we know African Americans are more likely to get COVID and die of COVID," Farley said.
He's met with hospital administrators, Black clergy and the Black Doctors Consortium, and they are working to help overcome resistance to the vaccine.
