Smart Talk: The focus on the COVID vaccination rollout

Listen to Smart Talk every weekday at 9am and 7pm on WITF 89.5 & 93.3. You can also stream WITF radio live on our website or ask your smart speaker to “Play WITF Radio.”

Perhaps the most discussed topic in Pennsylvania right now – at least by those of who are eligible – is getting a COVID-19 vaccination.

Specifically, how, when and where to get a shot.

Pennsylvania has a tiered system for who can be vaccinated. Tier 1A prioritized residents of nursing homes and frontline medical workers. However, the state expanded 1A on January 19 to those over the age of 65, younger people with serious medical conditions and others. That meant twice as many people are eligible to be vaccinated than the state has doses.

The state is lagging behind getting the doses it does have into arms.

From the Pennsylvania Department of Health:
Through Jan. 30:
• 1,814,850 doses of the vaccine will have been allocated/received by providers.
Through Jan. 28:
• 893,256 doses of the vaccine have been administered.

Monday’s Smart Talk focuses on COVID-19 vaccine distribution – what’s been done so far and what the near future looks like.

Guests include April Hutcheson, Communications Director for the Pennsylvania Department of Health; Republican State Representative Timothy O’Neal of Washington County; Dr. John Goldman, M.D., Infectious Disease specialist, UPMC Pinnacle; Chuck Kray, R.Ph., President of the Pennsylvania Pharmacists Association; and Brett Sholtis, WITF Transforming Health Reporter.