On Wednesday, March 9, Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health announced that the city’s vaccination rates are substantially lower than what the agency had previously reported. 

For weeks, the health department has been applauding that 53.6% of 5-11-year-olds had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, but it turns out that number was much smaller at only a third. 

Vaccination rates among adults were also inflated. Just over 75% of residents 18 and above are fully vaccinated, less than the 82% that had been reported. 

The city’s health commissioner, Cheryl Bettigole, said that everyone at the agency is extremely disappointed at the errors, but new measures have been put in place to prevent similar problems in the future. 

James Garrow, spokesperson for the department, recognized that these data errors damages credibility for residents that are already skeptical of vaccination. 

“Trust is everything in this business and it’s regrettable that this happened,” Garrow said. 

Garrow said that the department has not only added a second epidemiology team to review data, but also changed the way vaccination rates are presented on the public dashboard, so that nothing like this happens again. 

“The raw vaccination numbers on the city’s dashboard have been correct. Just the vaccination rates were wrong,” he said. 

Dr. Ala Stanford, a pediatric surgeon and founder of the Black Doctor’s COVID-19 Consortium, told The Philadelphia Inquirer that she wasn’t shocked to hear that the city’s vaccination rates among children were inaccurate. 

“I’ve been at the elementary schools since Jan. 18. I see the questions that are asked. I see the holes in education. And I still see some parents who have not endorsed and embraced the idea of vaccination with their children,” Stanford said.

Stanford believes that unmasking at schools isn’t too big of a risk because case rates are so low right now, but the low vaccination rates could be of concern if another surge occurs. 

The city didn’t provide an answer for why the adult vaccination rate was incorrect, but Garrow told the Inquirer that the pediatric vaccination rates became distorted in the process of adding data about Philadelphians vaccinated in other PA counties earlier this year. 

The health department first admitted its findings on Friday, March 4, after an Inquirer analysis questioned the accuracy of the pediatric vaccination rate. 

“Coordinating vaccination data has been a headache for public agencies from the start. State, federal, and local record-keeping systems aren’t compatible, and in the absence of a national vaccine database, some data entry is done manually,” Garrow said, adding that there is much “internal frustration” at the agency.