Santa Clara County published inaccurate demographic data on its COVID-19 vaccination panel and only updated the bugs after San José Spotlight brought them to the attention of officials.
“There is a discrepancy in the data,” Santa Clara County spokesman Roger Ross confirmed Thursday. “We investigated it.”
The majority of the data on the country’s vaccination panel are accurate, including the total COVID-19 case, but a data analysis shows that some of the numbers of those who received the vaccines decreased from thousands to hundreds of thousands.
“I spoke to the province’s leadership and IT is working on it,” supervisor Otto Lee told San José Spotlight before the update took place. “It looks like a data problem, … and it’s nothing intentional.”
Lee also added that the country did not use the wrong data to make its decisions. Officials could not explain the source of these errors on Thursday.
Some of the numbers published on the province’s dashboard differ drastically from the numbers in the province’s own data source.
As of March 3, the country reported that 313,447 eligible residents had received at least one dose of COVID-19 vaccine. The province’s data, available to the public on its data portal, shows that more than 182,000 female residents and 131,000 male residents have been vaccinated. But under the dashboard, the numbers were 382,790 and 293,598, respectively. That’s more than 676,388 vaccinated residents.
The contradiction continued in the data set out on the dashboard of the country according to race and ethnicity. For example, the graph showed inaccurately that 236,994 eligible Asian residents and 274,652 qualifying white residents received at least one vaccine dose. The dashboard now shows that the numbers are at 116 769 and 117 170.
The province, at the request of supervisors Cindy Chavez and Otto Lee, began releasing COVID-19 vaccination data through demographics in early February.
The new sets of data have also been added to the country’s daily tracker. The data showed the differences in the distribution of vaccines among different areas and racial groups in the country, where communities hit the hardest get the vaccines at the lowest dose.
“This data is why we were able to open vaccination clinics in the communities hardest hit,” Lee said. “The most important thing is that we make sure people get the vaccinations.”
Santa Clara County has opened 20 vaccination sites across the area, with more. It has recently moved into the red level with less restrictive rules that can reopen indoor dining.
Supervisors Cindy Chavez, Susan Ellenberg and Joe Simitian did not respond to inquiries late Thursday.
Contact Tran Nguyen by [email protected] or follow @nguyenntrann on Twitter.