Answer: It received disproportionately more vaccine than other states … and it used what it go much more efficiently
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When it comes to vaccinating, West Virginia (WV) has been outperforming other states.
For example …
Before the end of December, all WV’s sweep of nursing homes and long-term care facilities was complete.
Currently, over 10% of WV’s residents have gotten at least 1 dose of vaccine
Why has WV been so successful up to now, while other states (e.g. my home state Maryland) are lagging?
In prior posts, we broached the question:
Starting with this post, we’re going to drill down a bit deeper on WV’s performance factors.
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Today, let’s take a look from 50,000 feet …
Simply put, WV’s performance (and, more broadly, that of any state) is the joint effect of 2 overall factors: the relative amount of scarce vaccine that the state receives … and, the state’s efficiency in utilizing the supply that it does get.
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To get an overview, we sorted states into the consultant’s analytical weapon of choice — 2 dimensional matrix (below):
> On the vertical axis (the rows), the states are sorted by the relative per capita supply of vaccine that they’ve received from the Feds … whether they have received an average amount, at least 5% more than the average or greater than 5% less than the average.
Supply is, by and large, an exogenous variable. That is, other than by whining & complaining to the Feds, it’s not under the states’ control.
> On the horizontal axis (the columns) states are categorized based on the percentage of the vaccine that they’ve been allotted that they’ve utilized (i.e. that has been administered in vaccinations).
The utilization percentage is a summary measure of the state’s utilization efficiency. In later posts, we’ll explore factors that drive the utilization percentage.
Here’s the way states sort out (as of Jan. 30) …
