Pa.Uses suspicious data to market high covid vaccine rates

Pennsylvania officials advertised the covid-19 vaccination milestone on Wednesday, based on federal government data, but some experts have questioned the credibility of these numbers.

Governor Tom Wolfe, using figures from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, declared in a Twitter and press release that 95% of all adults in Pennsylvania had been vaccinated at least once.

“The uplifting reality is that most people are doing what they can to protect their health,” Wolff said in a statement.

The Governor’s Office spokesperson said the data is based on the Vaccine Data Tracker of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which combines state data, Philadelphia Health Department data, and Pennsylvania residents vaccinated outside the state. rice field.

Dr. Howard Forman, a professor of public health at Yale University School of Medicine, asked about federal government data. Interviewed with Kaiser Health News at the end of last year. He noted the fact that 99.9% of all Americans over the age of 65 received at least one vaccination, according to CDC data. This was inconsistent with myriad polls, surveys, and some state-specific data.

Since then, the CDC has been Add footnote Limit all vaccine data estimates to 95% to help “address potential overestimation of vaccination rates with unlinked first, second, and booster immunity.”

“I don’t know how reliable the CDC number is,” Foreman told KHN, pointing out a discrepancy between state data and the 99.9% figure for seniors in government agencies, which is incorrect.

“We want to know the best data for planning and preparation, and where to put our resources, especially where there is a significant shortage of vaccination,” Forman said.

Other experts said US News and World Report The CDC footnote limit is estimated to be 95%, which is insufficient to solve the underlying data problem.

William Moss, Managing Director of the International Vaccine Access Center at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said: “We need to know where to divert our resources …. Due to data variability at the state level, it’s very difficult to do everything at the federal or national level.”

Since the beginning of the pandemic, Moss told outlets that data reporting issues at the state level have plagued efforts to track numbers, starting with data and case count testing.

According to KHN reports, it is inherently difficult to obtain accurate information on vaccination data. Federal and state authorities may use different population estimates, where states may be vaccinated residents in other states, or federal government settings such as prisons and clinics managed by prisons and clinics. May not consider residents vaccinated with. Veterans Health Care for Indian Health Services.

The State Health Department’s own vaccine data dashboard Due to the way vaccines are classified by age, it is difficult to determine such an age range, as 18 and 19 years are concentrated in groups aged 15-19. Similarly, the age breakdown of older people falls into a much narrower category than the standard 65+.

In some breakdowns, data for Pennsylvania as a whole do not include data from out-of-state residents or the Philadelphia Public Health Service, as Philadelphia’s vaccination efforts are overseen locally rather than state. Please note in particular.

According to state data, about 76.2% of adults in Pennsylvania are fully vaccinated. That percentage has risen slowly over the past month to about 0.1% each week.

Locally, about 83.5% of all Allegheny County residents have been vaccinated at least once.

Cases of Covid-19 continued to decline in Allegheny County last week, and the latest data suggest that deaths may have begun to decline.

From February 14th to Sunday, 31 Covid-related deaths were reported to the County Health Department, down from 66 last week. Deaths reported to the department have been declining weekly since mid-January.

The decrease in mortality is consistent with the decrease in covid-19 cases in the county. This is because it takes a week or two for the number of deaths to catch up with the number of cases.

Hospitalization has also declined weekly since it peaked at around 500 a week on January 9th.

In the county, the number of cases dropped dramatically from over 10,000 in the last week of January to about 3,850 in the first week of February. From February 6th to 13th, the county recorded 2,105 cases, a decrease of about 45%.

In Westmoreland County, the number of cases decreased from 3,207 in the week from January 23 to 29 to 1,544 in the following week and 1,001 from February 6 to 13.

Drops are mirrored throughout the state. From February 14th to Sunday, the State Department of Health recorded an average of 2,608 cases per day. This is half the daily average of 5,487 cases last week.

Study: Immune-protected Covid deaths vaccinated primarily in the elderly

This Week’s Allegheny Health Network Released data According to officials, the majority of deaths from covid-19 after vaccination were found to be associated with the elderly with weakened immunity.

Of the 473 inpatients who were virus-positive for six weeks in July and August, 128 were completely vaccinated, according to a study published in the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s medical journal called the Open Forum Infectious Diseases. it was done.

Of the 128 fully vaccinated covid patients, 93 were symptomatic. The average age of 93 symptomatic patients was 73 years, with more than half considered obese by body mass index criteria. All had at least one comorbidity.

About two-thirds of symptomatic patients required intensive care, and 19 fully vaccinated patients died from the virus. Studies show that people under the age of 50 did not die or require a ventilator.

The data are from the 6 weeks of last summer before booster shots became widely available, but analysis shows that some people remain vulnerable despite the shots, but the vaccine is widely effective. ..

“Our experience at AHN is that while vaccines are very effective in preventing hospitalization and death, those who are fully vaccinated but at risk, especially medical. We emphasize people who are vulnerable to the disease, “said Dr. Matthew Mofa, an AHN infectious disease specialist.

“Nevertheless, full vaccination and boost immunization can be done by anyone to avoid getting sick or seriously ill with covid-19 and to prevent the spread of the virus to other vulnerable people. Most importantly, “Mofa said.