Pa. coronavirus update: Kids 12+ and people who’ve had COVID-19 urged to get vaccine – WHYY

Updated at 4:55 p.m.

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Acting Health Secretary Cheryl Bettigole spoke Tuesday about the good, the bad, and the ugly of how Philadelphia has reckoned with the pandemic over the past year.

In terms of the good, she cited the citys massive mobilization.

The idea that we were able to give this many doses in this short amount of time and get to a place in just a few months with 280 vaccine sites this is just a monster, Bettigole said.

When the department envisioned what a pandemic response might look like, we didnt envision a vaccine that would require ultra-low freezer temperatures, or some of the other restrictions that this vaccine has required, or keeping people six feet apart unmasked and so on. So, just the massive mobilization and the collaboration with partners across the city, ordinary Philadelphians stepping up to help really is just amazing. And, you know, we call our city the City of Brotherly Love and Sisterly Affection for a reason.

Discussing what the city couldve done better, Bettigole pointed to the importance of drilling down on data from the beginning.

I think there are things that we didnt necessarily anticipate and things we didnt necessarily see early on without that ability to break data down, Bettigole said.

Thats changed these days, she said, the city has teams of people focused on breaking data down according to census tracts, and identifying small-scale neighborhoods that are most in need of clinics.

That level of use of data is something that weve learned from this pandemic and something that [if] had we had early on, I think we mightve been able to avoid some of our early disparities, she said. I think it is a really critical piece of where we go next, because, I hate to say this, but you know, this might not be our only pandemic and we have to be ready.

It was a similar learning curve experienced across the country, though Bettigole said those disparities shouldnt have been a surprise.

We know whos going to be worst-hit in any bad health event, right? Its not rocket science its going to hit our Black residents. Its going to hit our Latino residents. Its going to hit our immigrants. We know this, Bettigole said. And so figuring out how do we go right there from the beginning to make sure were reaching the people who are most at risk? I think is something that we have all learned from this and, and well take forward.

Those vulnerabilities, she added, reflect a larger social and public health problem that will continue beyond the pandemic.

Racism is not unique to the COVID-19 pandemic impact, Bettigole said. We see it in diabetes rates. We see it in where cigarettes are marketed in our neighborhoods. You know, its the same story.

So what were seeing is not a surprise. Its the result of multiple systems that long, long, long predate this pandemic, but its sort of a perfect storm aimed at those neighborhoods. And we can anticipate that, and we can target our response based on knowing that.

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Pa. coronavirus update: Kids 12+ and people who've had COVID-19 urged to get vaccine - WHYY