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How many New Yorkers have gotten the latest COVID vaccine? No one knows.
By
Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky
Published Oct 9, 2023
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By
Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky
Published Oct 9, 2023
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New York City has stopped reporting the latest data on how many New Yorkers have received COVID-19 vaccines, according to a notice posted on the health department’s website late last month.
The news comes as New Yorkers scramble to get the latest round of COVID vaccines, which were released earlier this fall and are designed to protect against newer variants of the coronavirus. Without the regular updates, we don’t know how many New Yorkers are – or aren’t – getting the new shots.
Patrick Gallahue, a health department spokesperson, said that since the formal end of the COVID-19 public health emergency, pharmacies are no longer required to report new doses to the citywide immunization registry. That cuts off the health department’s supply of data, curbing its ability to track new shots.
“Mandating such reporting requires a change in state law,” he added.
Denis Nash, an epidemiology professor at CUNY’s School of Public Health, said that even before the switch, some of the vaccine data points had become less useful over time.
The full vaccination (or primary series completion) rate is no longer the most crucial stat for city health officials to track, he said, adding that “it’s going to feel like we’re missing something” without the latest data on the uptake of the new booster.
“It's going to be impossible now for all of us, as a city, to really know what's going on” with the new vaccines, Nash said. He added that we may get a sense of the new vaccines’ popularity through other channels, like surveys by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The New York State Department of Health is still sharing COVID vaccine data, though it hasn’t yet updated its dashboard to include the newest vaccines. NYC and state officials continue to update other COVID data points, many of which suggest that transmission has been elevated since the summer. The number of people hospitalized with COVID has nearly quadrupled citywide compared to mid-July, but it still pales in comparison to last winter’s peak.
The rollout of the new shots was marked by confusion among pharmacists and vaccine-seekers alike, Gothamist reported previously. Some New Yorkers said they were wrongfully charged for shots that were in fact covered by their insurance. Others had their appointments canceled because the monovalent vaccine doses were out of stock at pharmacies.
Last year’s boosters weren’t very popular among New Yorkers, city data shows. Just 16% of people opted to get the bivalent shots, compared to the more than four-fifths of New Yorkers who finished their primary vaccine series.
Tagged
new york city
COVID-19
Health and Science
Jaclyn Jeffrey-Wilensky
Jaclyn is a former Gothamist reporter.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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