Dallas, Texas – Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation (PCCI), which improves healthcare for vulnerable populations using advanced data science and clinical experts, has developed a COVID-19 Vaccination and Herd Immunity Dashboard to give residents of Dallas County up-to-date data about herd immunity levels, infections and vaccinations rates and corresponding demographic information.
The Dallas County Health and Human Services Department (DCHHS) will host the COVID-19 Vaccination and Herd Immunity Dashboard, which will supplement its rich set of COVID-19 resources. The COVID-19 Vaccination and Herd Immunity Dashboard can be accessed here: https://www.dallascounty.org/covid-19/
The COVID-19 Vaccination and Herd Immunity Dashboard provides exclusive data for Dallas County, including herd immunity by percentage of the county’s population at the ZIP code level. This is helpful for monitoring the county’s efforts to drive vaccination efforts to reach the herd immunity threshold of 80 percent of the whole county’s population who either have recovered from COVID-19 or who have received vaccinations. The dashboard’s data also includes vaccinations by manufacturer, estimated active COVID cases and important information resources about the pandemic.
“The COVID-19 Vaccination and Herd Immunity Dashboard provides the relevant available information to help estimate how far along Dallas County is toward reaching the herd immunity goal as well as the rates of vaccinations across the whole community,” DCHHS Director Dr. Philip Huang said. “It is important that we understand that once the indicators suggest that we are at the estimated herd immunity threshold, the work is not over. We need to continue the push for vaccinations, which is the crucial element to reaching herd immunity. The data in this dashboard will allow us to monitor our fight against COVID in every corner of the county in order for us to take the necessary steps to maintain our positive momentum.”
For each ZIP code in Dallas County, the COVID-19 Vaccination and Herd Immunity Dashboard also includes insightful, localized vaccination demographic information, such as ethnicity, age, sex and race. This data is used to continue to ensure equity in all our efforts and to continue to reach the population in the most convenient and effective way.
“This is critical information that we need to guide and coordinate our efforts. Dallas County is unique in the country for having these analytics available at such localized levels for all of our residents,” said Dr. Steve Miff, PCCI’s President and CEO. “The way we crush COVID is by coming together as a community and the information from the dashboard empowers everyone with knowledge on what is happening where they live― what the herd immunity level is and what the vaccination level is so they may act accordingly to maintain their safety and that of their families.”
In February, PCCI forecast that Dallas County would reach the 80 percent herd immunity threshold in June. However, that forecast has been pushed back to July due to slowing vaccination rates.
“Our progress toward herd immunity in Dallas County is making a difference as we have seen with slowing rates of community transmission, and it is so important that we aggressively continue our community efforts to vaccinate,” said Dr. Huang. “With the knowledge we gain from the COVID-19 Vaccination and Herd Immunity Dashboard, we can empower all our citizens with the information to stay safe. Vaccines are the best line of defense against COVID-19 and its variants, so it is critical that as many county residents as possible receive a vaccine.”
PCCI’s forecast for herd immunity is based on an innovative yet vetted statistical and immunological model and analysis of spread and management of diseases within communities. Further, PCCI’s 80 percent range for reaching herd immunity is in line with national estimates, such as that of Anthony S. Fauci, MD, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who recently gave a range of 70 to 90 percent and the World Health Organization which gave a 60 to 70 percent range of infections and vaccines to reach herd immunity*.
PCCI’s forecast and estimates have been developed in coordination with community health leaders in Dallas County, including the DCHHS and Parkland Health & Hospital System. Recently, PCCI has been collaborating with the leadership and expert teams at the Institute for Health Improvement on modeling.
The COVID-19 Vaccination and Herd Immunity Dashboard supports the Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox web browsers.
About Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation
Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation (PCCI) is an independent, not-for-profit, healthcare innovation organization affiliated with Parkland Health & Hospital System. PCCI leverages clinical expertise, data science and social determinants of health to address the needs of vulnerable populations.
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*New York Times, Dec. 24, 2020: “How Much Herd Immunity Is Enough?”
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/24/health/herd-immunity-covid-coronavirus.html
