COVID-19 vaccine rollout continues in the Delaware Valley

PHILADELPHIA - As COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations continue to rise, more and more people are hoping 2021 will bring mass vaccinations with it. But some are complaining the rollout has gotten off to a rocky start.

In the dwindling hours of a brutal year on the streets of Camden, there is disagreement. One medical intern is anxious about the COVID vaccine.

"If I were offered it I would take it just because it’s not about us anymore. It’s about the well-being of everybody else in the world," Clarissa Durr said.

While a security guard said no thanks. "I can’t say the vaccine is the best of the worst thing. If people say the best advice is to take it I say go ahead, but for me, I wouldn’t take it," Jeremiah Rentas said.

Anxiety over injections is just one of the obstacles state health officials face as doses arrive across the country...

A federal health official had said 20 million Americans would have their first shot by midnight.

But the nation will fall far short with just 2.8 million Americans with their first injections, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

"I think the expectations set by Secretary Azar that 20 million doses would be given by tomorrow were always unrealistic," Health Secretary Dr. Rachel Levine said.

In a Zoom press briefing Wednesday, Pennsylvania's Health Secretary said it will "take months" for the general public to be vaccinated, while the governor argued the vaccine rollout has been underwhelming.

"Personally, I’m disappointed maybe my expectations were too high that the vaccine hasn’t been rolled out faster and more efficiently than it has been," Governor Tom Wolf said.

The federal government has been lauded for billions spent to speed the development of vaccines, but criticism over the rollout prompted an assistant health secretary to defend the effort on Twitter.

Philadelphia says it’s injected over 24,000 doses and its health commissioner believes the feds are on the right track.

"We wish the vaccine were being produced faster than it is. I would love to offer the vaccine right now. We can’t do that it’s going to stretch over months," Health Commissioner Dr. Thomas Farley said.

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