Omitted doses, uploading errors, lag times and software mishaps. California’s vaccine rollout has been plagued by data issues, leaving the state unable to keep track of how many doses of the lifesaving COVID-19 vaccine are available at any one time.
The implications are far-reaching: Gov. Gavin Newsom has pushed to speed up inoculations in part because the state’s data appeared to show vaccine providers were sitting on doses, prompting the governor to threaten to take supplies from those who are not moving quickly enough. Now county officials say they are worried the data accuracy issues will cause future allotments to be curtailed based on flawed conclusions from faulty figures.
“We’ve been pointing out that their data is bad since the end of December,” said Fresno County Supervisor Ernest Mendes.
After being pushed to make public more information on the progress counties were making in their vaccination efforts, the state published a dashboard to “make vaccine data transparent and accessible to all Californians.”