Val Arkoosh On Vaccine Allocation – ‘It’s Horribly Unfair What Has Happened To Our State And To Our County’
“I’m going to just push back gently,” is how Montgomery County Commissioner, Val Arkoosh, began her response to Dr. Eddy Bresnitz, on a well attended town hall (via Zoom) last night. By the time Arkoosh was able to catch a breath, she was saying “I’m sorry, but I’m very passionate about this issue. I think it’s horribly unfair what has happened to our state and to our county.”
“The Covid Vaccination,” was the topic of the Town Hall on which Bresnitz, a public health and policy consultant; Arkoosh and several others, were panelists.
The question that Bresnitz posed to Arkoosh, was whether the state is distributing the vaccines to the counties “on a pro-rated population basis or is it some other alogrithm?” Prior to posing his question, Bresnitz said that he thought that allocating doses to the states was the fairest way. That’s what brought about Arkoosh’s “gentle pushback.”
The commissioner began by saying that “Pennsylvania is one of the oldest states in the United States.” She said that “the vaccine should be allocated based on population demographics, not just population. Because if we here in Pennsylvania don’t get more doses based on how many people we have in this state that are 65 and older; the states around us going to be to 1B when we’re still halfway through 1A. And I just don’t think that that’s fair or equitable.”
Arkoosh continued, “When it comes to how does Montgomery County get our allocation, I have been trying to get clarity on that from PADOH (Pennsylvania Department of Health), and I do not yet have the details of how those decisions are being made. I have been told that I will get to see them, that they are being revisited. I have made the same argument; now that we have this expanded 1A, that PADOH should be looking at the census population of people 65 and older as a starting point, for how they allocate vaccine across our county… we have the second most licensed long-term care facilities of any county in the commonwealth. So I can guarantee you that we have proportionately more people that are 65 years of age and older, and I think we need to get more doses based on that. Or it is going to be months before we get to our teachers, our bus drivers, and our grocery store clerks. And I don’t think that’s fair.”