What is the Booster Shot Uptake Like?

 

The other day I got curious about how many people were getting the booster shots in Arizona. So I decided to check into it.

Pandemic reporting by AZDHS is basically terrible. Their dashboard says the "percent of people vaccinated" is 63.5%. There is no explanation of whether this means one shot or fully vaccinated, or what is the basis for the percentage (population? eligible?). There is a footnote that says "vaccination numbers are displayed by the county or residence" even though the number so-footnoted is for the state. 

This seems like a possible attempt to make the vaccination numbers look better than what they are. According to Johns Hopkins just 57.5% of Arizonans are fully vaccinated.

I comes a no surprise, then, that AZDHS does not offer data on how many people have gotten a booster statewide. Fortunately, Maricopa County (with over 60% the state's population) does a better job of reporting, and offers this data.

According to to their dashboard,  251,188 of us have gotten boosters.  They say that's 4.7% of shots administered, but that doesn't tell us about uptake.  

According to World Population Review the current population of Maricopa County is 4,651,440. That means that 5.4% of us have gotten boosted. If we compare booster numbers to the 2,218,769 of us who were fully vaccinated, the rate looks better at 11.3%.  

I don't know, that still seems like a small number given that the boosters have been available for weeks now. A friend reported recent problems finding an appointment, so maybe that is slowing people down.

And it is indeed a small number compared to nationwide uptake. Ten days ago the Kaiser Family Foundation reported that 23% of vaccinated adults had received a booster. That means Arizona is behind the nation by half.

That same report said that 20% of vaccinated adults do not plan to get a booster. Why would you get fully vaccinated but then not get a booster? It's not like you're anti-vax or something.


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