‘Impossible’: Data issue may be lowering Jasper Co.’s vaccine rate, raising Beaufort Co.’s
Update: The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control fixed this issue in mid-April. Read more about it here.
A quirk in how South Carolina releases coronavirus vaccine data may be lowering Jasper County’s inoculation rate and raising Beaufort County’s rate, although it’s unclear to what extent.
Beaufort County as of Friday had the state’s fourth-highest rate of vaccinations per 10,000 residents, according to the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control.
DHEC reported that 39,449 Beaufort County residents had received at least one vaccine dose, with the county logging a rate of 2,523 first-dose recipients per 10,000 residents.
Jasper County, meanwhile, had the lowest vaccination rate in South Carolina, with only 936 recipients per 10,000 residents.
Those figures, however, are likely incorrect, according to an Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette review of state data.
DHEC as of Friday reported that only 17 Jasper County residents have been vaccinated in Okatie’s 29909 ZIP code, which spans both Beaufort and Jasper counties. Hardeeville Mayor Harry Williams called low numbers like that “virtually impossible.” The 29909 ZIP code covers a major chunk of Sun City North, where more than 3,000 people live in Jasper County, according to Williams.
In comparison, just across the border, over 9,500 Beaufort County residents as of Friday had been vaccinated in the 29909 ZIP code, according to DHEC.
That split doesn’t make much sense.
Laura Renwick, an agency spokeswoman, in a Friday statement wrote that DHEC’s online dashboard for coronavirus vaccine data is linked to the Statewide Immunization Online Network, or SIMON.
The SIMON database feeds residency information into the dashboard’s maps based only on vaccine recipients’ cities and ZIP codes.
“While this is cleaner than just considering ZIP code or just considering city, there are still instances where a ZIP code + city falls within two counties,” Renwick wrote. “This can lead to some discrepancies.”
So what exactly is happening in Beaufort and Jasper counties?
Some residents in Sun City North have Bluffton mailing addresses, said Anna Maria Tabernik, a Sun City board member. Others have Okatie addresses, she said.
That means if someone’s living in the 29909 ZIP code in Jasper County — but has a Bluffton mailing address, for example — when they use that information to schedule a vaccine appointment at Coastal Carolina Hospital, or at another provider, SIMON will eventually classify them as a Beaufort County resident, even if they’re not one, because it will read only “Bluffton” and “29909” when it designates their residency.
Jasper County has 23,501 residents who are 15 or older, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, meaning the Sun City North discrepancy could have a significant impact on the county’s inoculation rate, which was the lowest in South Carolina as of Friday. DHEC reported that only 2,200 Jasper County residents have received at least one vaccine dose.
(Williams, the Hardeeville mayor, said that if he had to guess, he thinks anywhere from 30% to 40% of Sun City North residents have been inoculated.)
So, hypothetically, if DHEC updated its rate calculations on Friday to include, say, 1,200 more Jasper County residents who live in Sun City North, and who recently got vaccinated, the county’s inoculation rate would rise four spots in South Carolina’s rankings. Allendale, Berkeley, Cherokee and Saluda counties would all have lower rates than Jasper County.
If Beaufort County, meanwhile, hypothetically had 1,200 less vaccine recipients included in its rate calculations on Friday, the county wouldn’t drop in the state’s rankings, but its rate would fall to just above Florence County’s, which logged a rate of 2,428 vaccine recipients per 10,000 residents Friday.
Those numbers are important to monitor as South Carolina’s vaccine rollout continues. Reliable DHEC data, particularly in rural Jasper County, are needed to gauge whether vaccination efforts are equitable and effective.
“You’re probably never going to get 100%” accuracy, Williams said of the data. “But if you get in the 90th percentile, you’re doing good.”
Renwick, the DHEC spokeswoman, wrote that a team is working to regularly “clean” the agency’s vaccine data and enhance the online dashboard to make it “as current and accurate as possible.”
“New and improved versions of the dashboard will continue to be launched,” she wrote.
Note: Data in this story are up to date as of Friday afternoon.
This story was originally published March 14, 2021 at 8:00 AM.
