Madison Kwiecinski 

News Editor 

Mvk5945@psu.edu 

In the final week of November, 2021, prior to the holiday season, the United States Center for Disease Control and Prevention dropped the total number of vaccinated adults in Pennsylvania by nearly a full five percent. 

This date correction seems to have stemmed from duplicate vaccinations being put into the system, which have now been removed. Vaccination rates for Pennsylvanians 18 years of age and older were previously set at 73.7 percent, but it has since dropped down to 68.9 percent. According to AP News, this drop represents 1.2 million less doses of vaccine distributed than was previously believed. 

“On Nov. 23, the CDC began to rectify their data to match Pennsylvania COVID-19 vaccine data and we anticipate the CDC to go through a similar process with other states across the country,” the department said in a statement.

 The Pennsylvania department of Health has been working in cooperation with the CDC, and sends all of its vaccination status data to them for further evaluation. In July, the CDC began the process of sorting through and removing duplicate vaccinated individuals from the system, and correcting data related to the first two shots and the booster. 

This data correction comes at a controversial time, with covid-19 cases rising as the holiday season approaches. According to the Department of Health over 33,000 people have died in Pennsylvania from the pandemic since it began. The department also stated that the day prior to thanksgiving there were 3,349 people hospitalized with COVID-19 in Pennsylvania, which is up about 21 percent in November.

The Pennsylvania Department of Health has also released statistics explaining the data behind individuals who are vaccinated and catch covid-19 compared to those who are unvaccinated. According to their website, between January 1, 2021 and November 2, 2021 88 percent of reported covid-19 cases were in unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated people. Additionally, 90 percent of those who have been hospitalized in PA due to covid-19 during the same timeframe have also been unvaccinated individuals.