Miami-Dade trails other Florida counties in vaccinating seniors for COVID-19 — by a lot
Despite being the epicenter of severe COVID cases and deaths in Florida, Miami-Dade has vaccinated a smaller percentage of its seniors than the state average, significantly trailing other South Florida counties and metro areas.
The state has been making progress as a whole, with about one-third of Florida seniors having now received at least one dose of the two federally authorized COVID-19 vaccines. But in Miami-Dade, which has suffered the most hospitalizations and deaths from the disease in the state, the percentage of seniors 65 and older who have received at least one dose is closer to 1 in 4
About 27.6% of people 65 and older have received the vaccine in Miami-Dade, according to epidemiologist Mary Jo Trepka, a professor at Florida International University.
“Miami is falling farther and farther behind relative to Florida,” Trepka said. “The situation is worse today than the data we looked at yesterday. Broward and Palm Beach are doing way better.”
On Tuesday afternoon, Miami-Dade Mayor Daniella Levine Cava posted a statement on Twitter reflecting the Herald’s report. “Miami-Dade is home to nearly half a million seniors 65+ and the epicenter of the pandemic – but we are not receiving enough vaccines to vaccinate seniors at the same pace as other counties,” Levine Cava wrote. The post included a letter to DeSantis asking for the state to increase supplies. “We can’t afford to lose this race against time as we fight to save lives,” she wrote.
Broward’s rate of vaccinations among seniors is slightly above the state average, with 34%, and Palm Beach has 43% of its 65-and-older population inoculated, according to Trepka, who added that the concentration of more-contagious variants of the COVID virus in South Florida made Miami-Dade’s lag especially concerning.
Miami-Dade is leading the state in COVID-19 cases and deaths, with about 22% and 19% of the statewide totals of each, respectively. The county has recorded 384,971 confirmed cases and 5,309 deaths as of Monday afternoon.
“Something is wrong here,” Trepka said.
In a Jan. 15 letter to DeSantis, Levine Cava noted Miami-Dade has “22% of all cases statewide” and the county was ready to increase its injections by three of four times if state supplies increased. “Increasing the supply of vaccines allocated to Miami-Dade is essential to protecting hundreds of thousands of vulnerable seniors and stemming the spread of COVID-19 across the state,” she wrote in the letter co-signed by Jose “Pepe” Diaz, chairman of the county commission.
A spokesperson for Gov. Ron DeSantis said in an email on Monday that Miami-Dade is the most populous county in the state, “which is important context when you are comparing their percentage to the statewide average.”
“That being said, the governor has visited Miami several times since the beginning of the year and has consistently recognized the need for proactive efforts to get the vaccine to our senior population,” said Meredith Beatrice, DeSantis’ spokesperson.
The governor was in Miami on Monday morning to announce that Bay of Pigs veterans would be emphasized as part of an effort to reach homebound seniors with COVID-19 vaccines.
Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, a Democrat and prolific critic of the DeSantis administration’s COVID response, said in a Feb. 1 video message that the county was “not getting its fair share of vaccine.”
“We have endured approximately 20% of the infections and deaths, yet we are only getting a little over 10% of the vaccine,” Gelber said. “That’s not fair. We need more vaccine.”
Miami-Dade accounts for about 12.5% of Florida’s population, meaning it might not even be getting the doses it warrants on a per-capita basis.
A statewide dashboard for vaccine distribution by University of South Florida biostatistics professor Jason Salemi roughly matches Trepka’s calculations using data that is a few days older.
That dashboard shows other metro hubs far outpacing Miami’s vaccination rate for seniors. About 37% of people 65 and older in Orlando’s Orange County have received at least one dose, and about 41% of Jacksonville’s Duval County seniors have been vaccinated.
Hillsborough County, where Tampa is, reported an even worse rate than Miami-Dade, with about 26% of its 65-and-older residents vaccinated for COVID.
Trepka, the FIU epidemiologist, says she has consulted local leaders on the issue and they are concerned. She said it was unclear to her at this point whether the problem was strictly about not having enough supply, or also a distribution issue.
She added that Miami-Dade is doing better than the state average for percentage of 65 and older who have received a second dose of the vaccine, with about 11.7% of seniors having received both doses here compared to 8.3% statewide.
“It’s that first dose,” Trepka said. “I don’t know why we’re not getting more first doses.”
Gelber, later on Monday, said that it was his understanding that the second dose rate in Miami-Dade was due to the county having a disproportionate share of Pfizer BioNTech vaccines, which start second doses earlier than Moderna — three weeks versus four. The mayor stressed that dozens of deaths continue to be reported in Miami-Dade County, even on a single day, with 28 reported on Monday.
“The idea that they’re not delivering 20 percent of the solution to the place where 20 percent of the deaths are happening is pretty outrageous,” Gelber said.
Miami Herald Staff Writer Douglas Hanks contributed to this report.
This story was originally published February 8, 2021 at 4:02 PM.
