Sens. Cruz, Cornyn Send Letter to CDC Director Walensky Urging the Department to Use Updated Texas Population Data for Vaccine Doses

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and John Cornyn (R-Texas) today sent a letter to Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Director Walensky urging the department to use updated Texas population data for the number of vaccine doses sent to the state in order to account for Texas' population growth.

In the letter, the senators wrote:

"CDC is making distribution decisions based on outdated data from 2018 that fails to account for Texas' recent population growth, including the fact that Texas added about 374,000 new residents in the one year period ending on July 1, 2020. As a result, CDC has not provided Texas with vaccine doses sufficient to meet its needs, especially in comparison to other states."

Read the full text of their letter here and below.

March 15, 2021

Rochelle P. Walensky, M.D.
Director
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
1600 Clifton Road - Mailstop E-92
Atlanta, GA 30329-4027

Dear Director Walensky:

We write to raise serious concerns about reports that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is allocating COVID-19 vaccine doses to states and territories without regard to current state population data.

We understand CDC is making distribution decisions based on outdated data from 2018 that fails to account for Texas' recent population growth, including the fact that Texas added about 374,000 new residents in the one year period ending on July 1, 2020.

As a result, CDC has not provided Texas with vaccine doses sufficient to meet its needs, especially in comparison to other states. For example, as of late February 2021, Texas had the lowest per capita number of doses delivered when compared to the other states.

This is unacceptable.

We therefore urge CDC in the strongest possible terms to immediately rectify this problem and to use current population data when making future allocations of the COVID-19 vaccine to the states and territories.

We look forward to your prompt response and immediate correction of this problem.

Sincerely,

/s/

###