South Carolina refuses to say where COVID vaccine is going

North Carolina residents know exactly which hospitals will get doses first from the state’s initial supply of coronavirus vaccines.

N.C. officials on Thursday released a list of 53 medical centers and health care systems that will soon receive shipments of Pfizer and BioNTech’s COVID-19 vaccine, which federal regulators are expected to approve for emergency use this weekend.

That same level of disclosure is absent just to the south. South Carolina’s public health agency has refused to name 15 vaccine sites with ultra-cold freezers that will get doses as early as next week, citing security concerns.

The S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control on Thursday also denied a public records request made by The Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette seeking a list of providers enrolled in South Carolina’s vaccine distribution network. DHEC said the records contained confidential proprietary information, among other things. Read more.