SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Monday, Utah health officials announced Monday that Republican Gov. Spencer J. Cox’s assertion that the state had reached its goal of vaccinating 70% of adults by July 4 was false because of a data error.
Cox issued an apology to state residents for the mistake on Monday, about a week after he publicly celebrated Utah surpassing its goal of 70% of all adults getting at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. The governor said the mistake was a result of “simple human error.”
“We screwed up. And I sincerely apologize,” Cox wrote in an open letter.
State health department statistics showed that 65.2% of adults had received one dose of the vaccine after the holiday weekend. However, on Twitter, Cox wrote on Twitter that that did not include nearly 115,000 doses that had been given out by federal agencies, incorrectly bumping the percentage to 70.2%.
Health officials said Monday that the department miscounted how the federally administered doses were categorized which led to some single doses being counted multiple times. As of Monday, 67% of Utah adults have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.
“While federal data sharing has been extremely difficult, this one is on us,” Cox said. “Our data team is devastated and embarrassed. And so am I.”
