By Phaedran Linger
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer
Maryland is inoculating a smaller percentage of its population than almost every state in the country, coming in 44th place overall, a state official told a Senate oversight committee yesterday.
Michael Powell, the director of the Office of Program Evaluation and Government Accountability, said 7.9% of Marylanders have received their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine and 2% have gotten their second dose.
By contrast, West Virginia – which is one of the top states in inoculating its residents – has given first doses to more than 12% of its population and second doses to almost 6%.
Despite the low numbers, Powell said that since mid-December, when vaccines became available, the number of coronavirus cases in Maryland has declined 50% and the positivity rate dropped almost 25%.
In addition, Acting Maryland Health Secretary Dennis R. Schrader told the senators the state is administering 22,000 shots a day, up from 2,000 since December. He said 77% of all doses available in the state have been administered.
Still, lawmakers on the Senate Vaccine Oversight Workgroup criticized the Hogan administration for not moving fast enough in getting shots in people’s arms.
Sen. Ronald N. Young, D-Frederick County, recounted his own frustrations in trying to get a vaccine before urging Schrader to work harder to improve distribution.
“There’s got to be a better way,” Young said.
Young joined Sen. Clarence K. Lam, D-Baltimore and Howard County, and others in pushing health officials to create one single website that Marylanders can use to register for vaccines.
“It’s not only inconvenient, it’s really inadequate to not have a more unified way to sign up [for a vaccine],” Lam said. “Why do Marylanders have to go to the Walgreens website, the CVS website, the Giant website, the Hopkins website … and other local health department websites to sign up for different waiting lists? Why can’t there be a single line in the state for people to sign-up?”
Schrader said that only four states have organized a one-stop-shopping website to register for vaccinations. He said Maryland is in line with 46 other states and federal guidelines.
“I don’t think that would be in our best interest,” he said. “We believe what we are doing is more equitable. We are getting a very high rate of immunization in the state.”
Schrader also said that if the state were to rely on only one website for vaccine registration, it would run the risk of falling further behind in inoculating the population should that website crash.
“There is a very high chance of creating one website that fails, and then the whole system collapses,” Schrader said.
Schrader said Maryland’s low numbers are about “supply, not technology.”
Schrader said the state successfully opened a mass vaccination site at Six Flags in Prince George’s County. He said six other sites are scheduled to be opened in the next few weeks.
He said he hoped the PG location would reach more people of color and reduce the racial discrepancies in who gets a vaccine.
Schrader said 90% of the doses the state has received so far have gone to hospitals and local health departments and only 3% have gone to pharmacies. That will change next week, he said, when pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens are expected to have vaccination sites in order to provide for weekend operations.