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CHARLESTON – The Centers for Disease Control has counted twice and misreported the number of West Virginia vaccinated against COVID-19, state officials revealed on Wednesday.
They placed the percentage of eligible state residents receiving at least one dose of the COVID vaccine at just 64.4% after learning of mistakes at the CDC. Previous data had shown that more than 74 percent of West Virginia received at least one dose of the vaccine.
“We identified an issue with the CDC subcontractor data provided to us, and it was specifically related to the federal pharmacy program.” explained James Hoyer, director of the state’s joint interagency task force. “Since the first part of May, they have twice counted the numbers they sent us for the federal pharmacy program.
“It had a significant impact on our numbers. “
He said a team of data scientists from the State Department of Human Resources and the University of West Virginia are currently reviewing COVID-related figures received from federal agencies to ensure that no others are inaccurate.
Hoyer said he was confident the team was working well to assess all data received from the national level.
Justice expressed contempt for the reported numbers and suggested it should have been taken at state level.
“I don’t see why in the world… I don’t understand,” says justice. “But if I look at the data and do my job, I’ll catch it if something is double counted.”
Hoyer did not attend the full Justice briefing on Wednesday, and Justice suggested Hoyer might be angry.
“You’ll get cannonballs in your stomach every now and then,” says justice. “You can blame the CDC – there’s no question it’s their fault.
“But there is no way to guide the ship without precise information.”
He said the net result is that West Virginia now needs to redouble its efforts to get people vaccinated.
“In my opinion, there is no excuse for the CDC to screw this up. But at the same time, there is also no excuse for our people not to know it. We must know, “ says justice.
He said “The real problem is we have sat down thinking we’re 74% and we’re not.” The state will have to make more efforts to reach those who are not vaccinated, according to Justice.
“There are people described as crazy from hell, but they are not very many” he said. “The people we need to reach are those who are really too busy to get the vaccine, or who aren’t really well informed and aren’t really against it. We can get them. And if we get them, we can really make a dent in trying to stop it. “
Justice said current state hospitalization figures show West Virginia may have peaked in COVID cases, but it will be some time before a decrease in COVID cases is observed in state hospitals.
He reported the number of people hospitalized with COVID cases in West Virginia now surpassing 1,000 – the highest number on record.
There are currently 280 patients in intensive care units and 168 on ventilators.
“If we are at the top, then it is surely always with us. But we don’t know, do we? he said. “We have to be ready and we have to keep doing our job …”
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