Lies, Damned Lies and Gov. Pritzker's COVID-19 Vaccine Statistics

CHICAGO, IL — There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies and statistics, as the saying goes.

Gov. J.B. Pritzker's Wednesday news conference was packed with the third kind of lie — his favorite, I suppose: hand-picked statistical calculations that provide a skewed reality about the state's coronavirus response for the purpose of misleading Illinoisans on how things are going.

[COMMENTARY]

Everybody should know by now that Illinois hasn't done a great job rolling out coronavirus vaccinations.

People who qualify for vaccinations are finding it impossible to get an appointment. The only reason we don't know how poorly the state has done vaccinating minority populations hit hardest by the coronavirus crisis is because Pritzker's administration won't release the data.

Still, Pritzker on Wednesday claimed, "We're actually doing quite well."

His proof? A barrage of statistical sleight of hand.

"Illinois continues to reach new heights in our vaccination infrastructure. Earlier this week, we became the sixth state … to surpass a million doses," the governor said.

That statistic without context sounds like a milestone.

But consider this: As of Tuesday, 34 states haven't been shipped a million vaccine doses. In Illinois, more than 870,000 vaccine doses remain on shelves — that's more vaccine shots in storage than have been delivered to Louisiana, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Pritzker bragged to reporters that our state is "sixth in the country in the number of vaccinations that have been administered to people."

That is a statistic that sounds like winning until you consider Illinois, the sixth largest state, also ranks sixth in vaccine doses delivered by the feds, the CDC said. And as of Tuesday, all but eight states had used a higher percentage of coronavirus vaccines sent by the feds than Illinois — which has administered 58 percent of distributed vaccine doses.

MORE ON PATCH: IL Ranks No. 47 In Vaccine Percentage, Pritzker No. 1 In Excuses

There's more to the vaccination story in Illinois than the governor's take on ginned-up statistical calculations that become news headlines he hopes will make us believe that his administration is a national vaccination leader — for a day, or when you eliminate states with smaller populations that statistically are doing a better job.

Here's my favorite of the governor's assessment of a statistical calculation manufactured by his press operation: "Among those most populous states, Illinois is administering doses quite quickly," Pritzker said.

Oh, really?

Well, there are vaccination statistics that suggest otherwise.

What if I tell you this: As of Tuesday, Illinois ranked 43rd among states in per capita vaccines administered, trailing the 10 most-populous states in the country.

Or that only 6.6 percent of Illinois' population has been vaccinated, better than only five states and three U.S. territories.

Am I lying?

Or does Pritzker need to do a better job getting needles in the arms of Illinoisans?

Mark Konkol, recipient of the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for local reporting, wrote and produced the Peabody Award-winning series, "Time: The Kalief Browder Story." He was a producer, writer and narrator for the "Chicagoland" docu-series on CNN, and a consulting producer on the Showtime documentary, "16 Shots."

More from Mark Konkol:

• CTU Shadow PAC Pushes Pritzker To 'Intervene' In CPS Stalemate
• IL Ranks No. 47 In Vaccine Percentage, Pritzker No. 1 In Excuses
• Chicago Teachers Union Strike Threat Just Another Power Play
• Former Top Cop Eddie Johnson's Cop Out Has Ring of Untruth
• Why Must We Pretend Pritzker Pandemic Metrics Aren't Meaningless?