With COVID-19 vaccines still scarce in California, there is a growing debate about who should be next prioritized for the shots and how quickly the state can step up its efforts to better meet rising demand.
The state has launched a high-level task force to figure out the logistics for how residents with disabilities and underlying health problems are next prioritized, state officials announced at Wednesday’s meeting of the vaccine advisory committee.
The group spent a lot of time discussing how those residents will be included in the state’s priority guidelines – a recommendation that could come as early as Friday.
“We take this incredibly seriously. This is the next priority group, ”said state epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan.
The committee’s current proposal is that individuals aged 16 to 64 with underlying health problems or disabilities should be the next eligible group in the rollout of the vaccine.
It was not immediately clear whether the recommendations would take over previous plans to target an age-based priority list or how eligibility would be determined. It was also unclear when vaccinations would become available for those groups.
Other segments of the population are also fighting to get earlier access to the vaccines, including key workers and teachers, who have made vaccination a necessary step to get back into the classroom.
Teachers and those working in the food and emergency services take precedence over health workers, long-term care staff and residents and adults aged 65 and over. But the limited availability of vaccines has made it difficult to establish that timeline.
Barbara Ferrer, LA County’s Director of Health, said Wednesday that “limited vaccine supplies do require consideration priorities.”
The groups to consider include people whose age, underlying health conditions, or other circumstances are at greater risk of death from COVID-19. Other Angelenos work in environments with an increased risk of transmission of the coronavirus and may carry the virus. Others work in areas that provide critical public services.
“There are many people who need to be vaccinated, and it is very difficult to determine which of these priorities is more urgent, urgent and important,” she said at a briefing Wednesday. “So we will all have to be patient.”
Ferrer said the province has administered about 1 million doses of vaccine, just a small fraction of what is needed for its more than 10 million residents. But stocks are not consistent.
In LA County, 193,950 doses came in the week of Jan. 11, but only 168,575 were delivered the following week and 146,225 the week after.
“The name of the game now is to keep everyone alive,” Ferrer said. “That’s the number one priority for us … to get as many people as possible to stay alive during this pandemic, and to reduce the risk of those most at risk of dying.”
A statewide shortage is so acute that some California counties that had begun offering vaccines to lower priority groups, such as teachers, childcare workers, and others working in educational institutions, have stopped vaccinating that group in order to cope with seniors to concentrate.
Marin County announced on Jan. 21 that supply restrictions had forced it to prioritize vaccinations for people 75 and older, and officials stopped scheduling appointments for people in lower priority groups.
A joint statement from eight local health authorities in the Bay Area on Wednesday said officials will give priority to health workers, people living in long-term care facilities, and seniors. Marin, Napa, Santa Cruz and Solano counties prioritize residents 75 and older; while Contra Costa, San Francisco, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties give priority to people 65 and older.
“Three out of four COVID-19 deaths in Marin are among our residents aged 75 or older. A vaccine offered to a resident over the age of 75 is more than 300 times more likely to save a life than a vaccine offered to someone under the age of 50, ”said Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County’s health officer, said in a statement.
“Across the region, most COVID-19 deaths are in the age group 65 and older. Thus, concentrating vaccination efforts on those at the highest risk of death will have the greatest immediate impact on saving lives, ”the joint statement said.
The Bay Area does not have enough vaccines to inoculate all residents 65 and older, let alone other worker groups next on the state’s proposed priority list: educators, food and agricultural workers, and first responders.
Weekly dose allocations in the Bay Area – received from a formula designed to ensure fair statewide distribution – have been delayed compared to shipments in December and early January. At the current rate, it will take several weeks for a first dose to be offered to all older adults seeking to be vaccinated, officials said.
“We have to be direct and fair to the public that while we want to vaccinate everyone, we just don’t have enough vaccine to do that right now,” says Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara County’s health officer and director of public health, said in a statement.
“Given the limited supply of vaccines, we must prioritize vaccinating those most at risk of death or serious illness,” she said. “We would like to vaccinate a much wider segment of the population and are ready to do so as soon as vaccination permits.”
While federal officials said on Wednesday that more vaccines will come soon, local health jurisdictions in California, including LA County, have complained that their weekly shipments are actually getting smaller, not bigger.
“We’ve been steadily increasing the amount of vaccine we send to states,” Jeff Zients, coordinator of President Biden’s COVID-19 task force, said Wednesday. “We anticipate as we work hard to monitor and assist and assist manufacturers that supply will continue to increase.”
Gavin Newsom said on Wednesday that it expects California to receive about 1.06 million doses of vaccine this week, an amount he says is “encouraging.” Still, he said California – like the rest of the country – “remains limited based on supply.”
“We recognize what you recognize: There are parts of the state that are already coming without vaccines, where they are pushing back in terms of their dose allocations as they run out,” he said. “The federal government doesn’t have the doses to support states like ours on the scale we would all like to see.”
However, the pace of vaccinations has accelerated in recent weeks. According to data from The Times, about 7.4% of Californians have received at least one dose, and California has administered nearly 63% of the doses received – a dramatic improvement from a week ago.
In the midst of that resurgence, disability advocates have fought to make sure that group is given a higher priority.
“I appreciate that the state has made it clear today for the first time that people with high risk disabilities and underlying health problems will be the next priority and that they are working with us to develop an implementation plan. I’ll feel a lot better if they commit to a timetable for vaccinating high-risk people with disabilities, ”said Andy Imparato, executive director for Disability Rights California and member of the vaccine advisory committee, Wednesday.
“It feels like we’re getting lip service and that the State Department of Public Health doesn’t really understand how high-risk persons with disabilities should be prioritized and vaccinated,” he said, noting that although the state has suggested, it will update its guidelines, the plan has not yet been established.
As for teachers, state and federal officials have been pushing for a while that campuses for kindergartens through 12th grade students can safely reopen without teachers being vaccinated – and they reiterated that point Wednesday.
“There is growing data to suggest that schools can reopen safely, and that safe reopening does not suggest that teachers should be vaccinated,” said Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the new director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, at a briefing. of the White House’s COVID-19 response team.
When asked about the CDC director’s comments, Newsom said he endorses the Biden administration’s position, which is being reinforced today at their press conference, which will allow us to reopen schools safely. [an] appropriate level of support. “
Howard Blume, the Times staff writer, contributed to this report.