About 100,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccine are in freezers waiting to be administered in Santa Clara County, new data show.
Santa Clara is one of the first counties to release COVID-19 data on how many doses are given to each provider and how many are used.
As of Thursday, of all 280,000 doses received by suppliers, more than 96,000 remain unused.
While larger medical providers, such as Stanford Health and Kaiser Permanente, have administered more than 70 percent of their doses, smaller providers appear to be struggling, the data show.
Northeastern Medical Services (NEMS) in San Jose, which specifically targets underserved Asian communities, had the lowest injection rate, with only 12% of doses administered. They had almost 2,000 doses waiting.
Two other providers that also serve vulnerable minority populations also seem to be having a hard time. Asian Americans for Community Involvement (AACI) administered 21% of the vaccine supply and more than a thousand doses remained. Bay Area Community Health (BACH) also administered 22% of its stock and had nearly two thousand unused doses.
“It simply came to our notice then. There is a lot of hesitation about the vaccine in our population as well, “said Dr. Kenneth Tai, medical director of NEMS. Tai said his organization and other smaller providers and clinics face unique challenges that reach some of the most vulnerable populations of our community.
“I literally received the vaccines last week. Only internally we need to train our staff how to make the questionnaire, how to make injections, etc. Most of them work overtime, “said Dr. Tai.
BACH sent an e-mail to our investigation unit saying that its unused doses are the result of:
- Extreme weather is destroying some of their vaccine structures
- Many of their patients take the “wait and see” approach.
- Getting patients over the age of 75 to schedule appointments is an awareness challenge
- Most community clinics do not have scalable technology platforms for programming
“Those in disadvantaged communities are most at risk of not getting the vaccine in a timely manner,” said Graham Knaus of the California State Association of Counties. “We are redoubled our efforts to try to reach those communities in an incredibly complex and changing system every day.”
Smaller providers, such as NEMS, said they administered more doses than reflected in the data. Currently, there is no uniform vaccination reporting system in county, state or federal, so some providers are required to create their own workflows.
Our investigation unit contacted other counties to compare data, but Contra Costa, Alameda, San Mateo and San Francisco counties have not yet released supplier-based information.
“We are working hard to introduce vaccines into people’s arms and we want to do the job,” said Dr. Tai.
Candice Nguyen is an investigative reporter at NBC Bay Area. To reach her about this story or others, send her an email [email protected].