Allegheny County officials cite equity and hesitancy as barriers to vaccinations

Vaccine hesitancy, equity and general access remain barriers to getting Allegheny County residents inoculated against covid-19, Dr. Debra Bogen, health director, said at a Board of Health meeting Wednesday.

State data shows that 445,578 people in Allegheny County are fully vaccinated, but with around 1.2 million residents, Bogen said there are still “a couple hundred thousand” left who are eligible to receive a dose.

The health department receives about 10% of the total amount of doses entering the county, and has focused much of its vaccine efforts on senior living facilities, larger clinics and harder-to-reach groups. Bogen said the department has administered around 110,000 doses at this point. She noted that the department is “close to done” with large vaccine events, and will pivot to smaller community events.

Ongoing equity concerns continue to be a challenge, Bogen said. While the state tracks basic data about the number of vaccines administered by race, ethnicity, and other demographic factors, she said there is not data at the “community level.”

“Without that, it’s hard to know where we should be putting our efforts, so we’re still working on getting that data,” she said.

Vaccine access has improved over the course of the rollout, Bogen said, thanks to a partnership with the United Way and its 2-1-1 line and a new online registration system to help people schedule vaccine appointments. Walk-up events have been available at county-run sites for the last two weeks or so.

But like the rest of the country, vaccine hesitancy remains an issue.

Numerous studies have shown higher hesitation to receive the covid vaccine by age, occupation and numerous other factors. As all adults in the country are now eligible to get a dose, hesitancy is the main barrier to achieving widespread herd immunity.

Bogen said one of the challenges is that doctors whom people trust the most — their own personal care physicians — often don’t receive an allocation of doses. Because the vaccines are packaged in multi-dose vials, it doesn’t make sense to send them to individual doctor’s offices, where there may not be enough people coming in on any given day to use them.

“Going forward, I think we need to think about how we distribute vaccine into doctor’s offices, because that’s where people want to go and that’s who people trust,” Bogen said.

The rate of vaccination has slowed as more of the population is inoculated. The county reached a peak in the rate of vaccination near the end of March or early April, administering around 19,700 doses (both first and second doses) on April 1, for example. On Tuesday, there were 4,775 doses administered, according to the state data dashboard.

“We’re still vaccinating quite a few people, but not quite to the rates we were a couple weeks ago,” Bogen said.