Philadelphia’s immediate suburban jurisdictions have benefited most from vaccine vaccination policies, but data show that more than 10,000 vaccines have also gone to residents with legal residences spread across a wide width of the country.
Hundreds of New Yorkers have been vaccinated at city clinics, as well as dozens of Bay Area residents. One vaccine recipient listed a home in Big Horn County, Montana. Another listed Juneau, Alaska. Another, the island of Hawaii.
Still waiting for a vaccine in North Philadelphia
The pandemic, meanwhile, stunned Philadelphia neighborhoods such as Bridesburg and parts of North and Southwest Philly, where vaccination rates were low.
Darryl Rodgers, 64, lives in North Philadelphia in one of the city’s least-typed zip codes, 19132. Rodgers was eager to get the chance because he suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, heart disease and asthma, all of which make him high. risk for COVID-19. He could have planned a shot at the Walgreens in his area, but in the days before his appointment, he said the pharmacy called him to cancel because he was not 75. Rodgers said he made it clear that he had underlying conditions that made him eligible.
“They rejected me,” he said.
Philadelphia recently named pharmacies as the hub for vaccination for people over 75 in an effort to guarantee seniors’ priority and to eradicate linehoppers who are not yet eligible, Farley said. The compromise is that those, like Rodgers, with other high-risk conditions or in areas with great needs, are forced to go somewhere else.
Since Philadelphia received its first vaccination in December, white residents have received an exorbitant share of the doses, and the richest parts of the city – such as Center City or Chestnut Hill – have generally had the highest vaccination rates. About 20% of the doses in the city are to black people, who make up more than 40% of the city’s residents. Less than 10% went to people who identify themselves as Asian, Hispanic or another racial or ethnic identity, respectively. The Department of Health did not provide a racial breakdown of non-residents who received the vaccine.
The city is making efforts to reach people with subordinate zip codes through its own neighborhood clinics, which opened earlier this week. Farley also said the city uses its zip code card to consider residents in under-vaccinated zip codes, when inviting people to future events. The Black Doctors COVID-19 Consortium, which operates vaccine clinics at churches and in the Liacouras Center of the University of Temple, also prioritizes people in under-represented postal codes.
Earlier this month, Rodgers received the gloomy news of a fourth high-risk condition: an early stage of cancer diagnosis. Shortly afterwards, his doctor called to plan him for his first dose of vaccination. Yet Rodgers felt it should not take a cancer diagnosis to get him a dose.
“We know that coloreds have been disadvantaged for a very long time. This is just another case of it,” said Rodgers, an African-American. “I do not know if that will ever change.”