No Excuses: Vaccination miscount means more work ahead
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West Virginians got a better idea last week where the disconnect occurred between the idea that almost 75 percent of residents had received at least their first COVID-19 vaccine shot and a frightening surge in virus cases and deaths while officials pleaded for more people to get vaccinated.
It turns out the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had been double-counting and misreporting the number of vaccinated Mountain State residents. The true percentage of residents who have received at least their first dose is closer to 64 percent.
"We have identified a problem with the CDC contractor data that was being provided to us, and it was specifically related to the Federal Pharmacy Program," said James Hoyer, director of the state's joint interagency task force. "Since the first part of May, they have been double-counting numbers they sent us relating to the federal pharmacy program."
To be fair, Gov. Jim Justice also threw in a little criticism of our own State Department of Health and Human Resources when he said "There's no excuse in my opinion for the CDC to screw this up. But at the same time, there's also no excuse for our people not knowing. We've got to know."
While those government employees dropped the ball, it is reasonable to assume plenty of West Virginians used the belief that 3/4 of the state was at least partially vaccinated as an excuse to avoid getting the shot themselves. Further, the mistake could have fueled nonsensical conspiracy theories about the ineffectiveness of the vaccine.
"There is no way you can guide the ship without accurate information," Justice said.
He's right. The false sense of security provided by those wrong numbers may have done damage we cannot undo.
"The real issue is we have been sitting back thinking we're at 74 percent and we're not," Justice said. At least he understands that means we must now work even harder to make people understand how important it is to get vaccinated (and continue wearing masks and taking other steps to stem the spread of the virus).
Those who were asked to properly keep track of numbers that can make or break our fight against this monster failed us -- at both the state and federal levels, it seems. Their supervisor will have to do everything in their power to ensure this same mistake has not been made with the numbers from other states as well; and that it NEVER happens again.