MADISON, Wis. — After receiving criticism on the state’s slow vaccine rollout, Wisconsin is now pulling ahead in the race for vaccine distributions, according to data collected by the Center for Disease Control and Our World in Data.
As of Feb. 7, Wisconsin has administered more than 742,000 doses of the vaccine, of which, more than 153,000 people have received both doses.
Vice President of Pharmacy Services with SSM Health Mo Kharbat said he believes the state’s increase in vaccination distribution has to do with several factors, including more vaccination sites being available than they were in December and more people feeling comfortable with getting a vaccine after seeing so many others get one.
“Our vaccine clinic schedules are full and we’re limited only by the number of vaccines available to us,” Kharbat said.
As of last week, there are now more than 2,000 vaccine locations in Wisconsin, according to Kharbat.
“The CDC said a few weeks ago states that administer more vaccines will be allocated more vaccines,” Kharbat said. “It’s a way to reward states for having a good, efficient process.”
Even as the CDC shows Wisconsin rising in the ranks for vaccine administration, DHS Secretary Julie Willems Van Dijk said that still doesn’t reflect the numbers that DHS reports daily, which is a higher average than what the CDC reports.
“Ever since the CDC started publishing vaccination data by state, the Wisconsin data reported by CDC has lagged behind our own data,” Van Dijk said.
UW Health Medical Director Matt Anderson said it’s good news that Wisconsin is stepping up in the process, but still emphasizes that many vaccine distribution sites still don’t have enough vaccine supply.
“I think it’s good news but there’s still some challenges before us,” Anderson said. “We are trying to be very transparent with the community about what some of those challenges for us in particular are.”
When the Johnson & Johnson vaccine gets emergency use authorization, Kharbat believes more supply will be made available which could help speed up the vaccination efforts.
Kharbat believes that if Wisconsin continues its efforts at this rate, and more vaccine sites become available, we could have about 50% of the state vaccinated in a few months, depending on the supply of the vaccines.
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