Dear Friend,

There’s good news on the horizon, even amid the many challenges of the COVID-19 vaccine rollout. 

We’ve all experienced the frustration of navigating the disjointed registration process and scouring the multitude of vaccine providers’ sites for appointments, whether it's for ourselves or for our loved ones.

The good news is more vaccines should be coming our way in the next few weeks. Last week, Maryland received its first shipment of the Johnson & Johnson/Janssen vaccine.

This is a one-shot vaccine that is shown to be 85 percent effective in preventing severe disease and showed 100 percent protection against COVID-19 related hospitalization and death. Montgomery County will be receiving the next shipment of J&J doses in several weeks.

Montgomery County’s first allocation of 1,600 Johnson & Johnson vaccine doses last week was dedicated to teachers and support staff, other essential workers, some home-bound seniors and residents of homeless shelters. With our children and teachers returning to in-person learning, getting our teachers and staff vaccinated is essential to ensuring a safe return to schools.

So far, Montgomery County has offered over 20,000 vaccination appointments to teachers and support staff and plans to reach its goal of 25,000 appointments by the end of the month.

And we’re hopeful that vaccine allocations from the State will increase as federal supply increases. According to the New York Times, the United States is administering an average of two million vaccine doses per day, up from 1.3 million doses per day a month ago. 

More good news: Montgomery County’s Department of Health and Human Services has begun vaccinating residents in Priority Group 1B, Tiers 2 and 3, which includes essential workers such as educators, transit workers, postal workers, child care and individuals with developmental disabilities, and residents in Priority Group 1C, Tier 1, which is adults aged 65 and up. Pre-register here or by calling (240)777-2982.

Over 70 percent of our residents aged 75 and older have been fully vaccinated, and the County continues to invite others in that age group to make appointments if they haven’t already.

These bits of good news move us closer to the light at the end of the tunnel -- where our residents are healthy and vaccinated, our children back in schools safely and our businesses reopened fully. 

The pandemic is not behind us, but we are in a stronger position now than we were just a few weeks ago.

Still, there is more work to be done. 

The Council continues to call on the governor and the Maryland Department of Health to address the inequities in the statewide vaccine distribution and correct them.

Montgomery County receives a much smaller allotment of doses from the State relative to its population size, diversity and rate of COVID-19 cases, as compared to other jurisdictions in the State. Maryland Matters reports that Montgomery County receives 11 doses per 100 residents, as compared to Kent County (28 doses per 100 residents), Dorchester County (22 doses per 100 residents) and Garrett County (21 doses per 100 residents).

And The Baltimore Sun confirms many of our suspicions -- white Marylanders have received over four times as many vaccine doses as Black residents and new data reflect the vaccine rollout’s inequities, which prioritizes people with cars, internet access and tech skills, rather than the communities who need it most.

The Council and County Executive continue to urge the governor and the Maryland Department of Health for a mass vaccination site in Montgomery County. I’d like to thank our partners in Congress, Reps. Jamie Raskin and David Trone, for supporting our efforts and sending a letter to Gov. Hogan and Acting Health Secretary Dennis Schrader reiterating the need for a mass vaccination site to serve the residents of Montgomery County.

Lastly, we need a centralized registration system, rather than the existing state-run PrepMod registration system that favors those who can afford a computer and are tech-savvy and with lots of time to search for appointments across multiple providers.

Our limited vaccine supply, lack of a mass vaccination site -- which would serve the largest, most diverse jurisdiction in the State -- and lack of a uniform registration system are contributing to stark disparities in the vaccine rollout. 

Though 31 percent of Maryland’s population is Black and 11 percent is Latino, just over 16 percent and 4 percent of these residents, respectively, have been vaccinated.

The key to effective public health policy is to bring the vaccine doses to the people, but we have a system in this administration that forces the people to drive all over the State to get the doses they desperately need. This disproportionately favors those who have access to the resources many may take for granted - like a car, a job and a boss that allows them to take the time off of work.

We have called on the State time and time again to take action, but our progress is limited without their collaboration. 

To the residents who are frustrated at the limited doses and inaccessibility of the vaccine, I encourage you to reach out to the office of Gov. Larry Hogan and Acting Health Secretary Shrader and advocate for a mass vaccination site here in Montgomery County.

Thanks to the many residents who have already sent their own correspondence to the Governor’s office echoing these sentiments.

The only way we will get through this is together. 

As always, please stay safe and stay in close touch.

Sincerely,