As they prepare for nonprofit insurer Blue Shield to take the lead in vaccine distribution in Sonoma County, health officials and local elected leaders were skeptical, worried on Wednesday that this move will be another state-led pandemic setback. could be.
Recalling the COVID-19 vaccine debacle here last month at a clinic in Rohnert Park run by a state salesman, county officials acknowledged fears of losing control of the vaccination campaign and plan to shut down their network of vaccination clinics. place.
As of March 7, Blue Shield, which California health officials contracted last month to be the state’s vaccine administrator, plans to use the county’s network of clinics, health centers and other partners for vaccinations. But the insurer will provide the weekly vaccine supply and decide how many doses will be delivered to individual local vaccination sites. Under its state contract, Blue Shield will also work to ensure that shots land in the guns in a racially fair manner.
“We have a lot of parts, a Plan B to make sure that if there is a failure in their system, we have backups because we do it now,” said Ken Tasseff, Sonoma County vaccine coordinator. . “We’re not going to be dismantling anything until we’re sure (Blue Shield) is getting it right.”
Blue Shield will also take control of planning and tracking the doses of coronavirus vaccines in the province. This week, the health insurance company took on that role in 10 other California counties, mostly in the Central Valley.
State officials said the move aims to make residents vaccinate more efficiently, increase public transparency about where vaccine doses are going, and get shots at people in communities disproportionately affected by COVID-19.
County health officials and supervisors discussed the acquisition of the Blue Shield shot at a press conference. They hope the move will increase weekly shipments of vaccines for the county.
Blue Shield declined to answer several questions from a press Democrat reporter about the new vaccination distribution plan here on Wednesday. Erika Conner, Blue Shield senior spokeswoman, referred the questions to the California Department of Public Health.
Under a state contract for which it will not make a profit, Blue Shield operates a state vaccine distribution network that delivered approximately 1 million doses to residents this week. With California surpassing 50,000 coronavirus deaths on Wednesday, becoming the first state to hit that sad milestone, the state is counting on Blue Shield to speed up vaccinations.
Dr. Urmila Shende, the province’s vaccine leader, said local public health officials, who have spent weeks fixing kinks in the vaccination rollout, will do everything they can to ensure a smooth transition with Blue Shield. Still, she warned there could be problems.
“We have found throughout this vaccine rollout process that it is not easy,” said Shende. “So we’re going to work really hard with the third-party administrator (Blue Shield) to make sure all the things we’ve put in place lead to the most successful rollout possible.”
Shende believes the province will receive more vaccine doses through Blue Shield, as has been the case with some of the counties that participated in the first wave of centralized distribution.
The province still does not have enough doses to meet the demands of the residents. Nonetheless, this week the province extended vaccination entitlement to a population of more than 60,000 residents, including those over 65, plus education, childcare, food production, emergency services, grocery and restaurant workers.
The county began vaccinating health and nursing home residents and staff in December, moving to residents aged 75 and over, then to those aged 70 to 74, before finally tying in with what the state was doing in mid-January: making shooting appointments for seniors aged 65 and over.
Partnerships with local health clinics and medical providers have resulted in a robust network of provincial vaccination clinics that could inoculate far more people than the 7,680 doses the county received this week, Shende said.
“If we had enough vaccinations, we could do at least six times as much, if not more,” she said. “So we’ve built capacity at this point in the last five to six weeks.”
County health officer Dr. Sundari Mase, said she is concerned that a “one-size-fits-all” approach to vaccine distribution across the state could cause problems, especially in a state with 58 counties of varying sizes and demographics. .
Supervisor Chris Coursey expressed a lack of confidence in Blue Shield’s online vaccination submission system. The county has previously experienced the danger of the online appointment system that state vendor OptumServe used for a clinic in Rohnert Park last month. Because the age was incorrect, the province had to cancel thousands of appointments outside the gate.
Lynda Hopkins, chairman of the County Supervisors, said she was not happy about the loss of local control over COVID-19 vaccinations, after all the work that has been done to ensure that the county’s most vulnerable residents are be vaccinated.
“We’re moving from this constellation approach, where we work with trusted community partners who have deep relationships with the communities they serve, to a much more centralized, command-and-control approach that is truly designed to get that vaccine as soon as possible. out the door, ”Hopkins said.
You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or [email protected]. On Twitter @pressreno.