Dear Friend,

There has been an overwhelmingly positive reception to the news of the lifesaving Pfizer and Moderna vaccines in Montgomery County. It is heartening to know that so many of our residents are eager to be vaccinated, as the vaccines are our best weapons against the deadly COVID-19 virus. 

Already, over 258,000 people in Montgomery County have pre-registered for vaccinations. And though there is still some vaccine hesitancy -- particularly in communities of color, where there is a long history of mistrust in our medical institutions -- our excellent health officials and community partners are working with residents to overcome lingering hesitancy and dispel myths and misinformation about the vaccines.

Despite the hundreds of thousands of residents eager to get their vaccines and the county healthcare workers ready and able to administer 25,000 vaccines a week, we are not receiving nearly enough vaccines to meet that demand.

Unfortunately, Maryland has had one of the slowest vaccine rollouts in the country. The state receives about 80,000 doses a week from the federal government, and only a fraction of those doses are sent to Montgomery County.

Two weeks ago, the Montgomery County Health Department received 5,500 doses in the weekly allotment from the State. Last week, our allotment was decreased by 1,000 and our health department is only receiving 4,500 doses. 

On top of that, the state’s current system for vaccine registration is fragmented, disorganized and inefficient. Montgomery County-operated clinics (including White Oak Rec Center, Richard Montgomery H.S., and Quince Orchard H.S.), state-sponsored clinics (like Six Flags in Upper Marlboro, Baltimore Convention Center and M&T Bank Stadium), hospitals (like Holy Cross Hospital, Adventist HealthCare, Suburban Hospital, Kaiser Permanente and MedStar Montgomery), pharmacies (like Giant Food and Safeway), and other private providers all have different registration systems and prioritization and equity guidelines.

We recognize that this is confusing and we share your frustrations. At the county level, we are doing everything we can to resolve the ongoing issues plaguing the vaccine rollout and get answers to the myriad questions we have received.

Local governments and local health departments are working tirelessly to get information out to the communities we serve, despite minimal guidance or direction from our state health officials, who should be leading a cohesive statewide rollout plan. Instead, they have been reluctant to participate in vaccine-related town halls across the state and are giving unclear guidance on questions that are on the minds of many Marylanders.

Despite the challenges and limited guidance from the governor and the Maryland Department of Health, Montgomery County’s health department continues to lead in vaccine administration, administering nearly 100 percent of vaccines we receive each week. 

We continue to advocate for the residents of Montgomery County in our ongoing discussions with Governor Larry Hogan and maintain pressure on the Maryland Department of Health to increase our currently-inadequate supply to meet our enormous demand. Leaders from 22 of the state’s 24 jurisdictions, including myself and County Executive Elrich, came together in a letter urging Gov. Larry Hogan and the Maryland Department of Health to be more transparent in how the state’s vaccine doses are being distributed.

My colleagues on the Council and I are also urging the state to address its distribution challenges that cannot be corrected at the county level and have laid out our requests in a letter to the governor.

To address these issues, the Council invited Maryland's Acting Secretary of Health Dennis Schrader to attend a Council meeting to address ongoing issues with vaccine distribution and registration. In response, three representatives from the Maryland Department of Health, including Dr. Jinlene Chan, Acting Deputy Secretary for Public Health Service, participated in last week’s Council session (if you missed it, watch here) to answer questions from councilmembers.

I am hopeful that, with the promise of ramped up vaccine production from the Biden-Harris administration, we will be receiving larger allotments of doses in the coming weeks. And we are confident that we will be able to maintain our high rates of vaccine administration, even with increased allotments of doses.

We have a long way to go and I thank you all for your continued patience and support. 

The sooner we get our residents vaccinated, the sooner we can have our children return safely to in-person learning and reopen our businesses and restaurants.

Until then, please stay patient, informed, masked up and six feet apart!

Sincerely,