Vaccine updates: Disability advocate group defends California’s no-verification policy
California’s pace of vaccinating against COVID-19 is increasing, and the equity gap as measured by the state is steadily shrinking.
State health officials and Gov. Gavin Newsom two weeks ago announced that 40% of vaccine allocations would go to disadvantaged communities, defined as the lowest quartile of ZIP codes according to California’s “Healthy Places Index.”
At the time of that announcement, Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly said the bottom HPI quartile had received about 17% of all doses administered in California while the top quartile had gotten about 34%.
The state now says 18.8% of doses have now gone to the bottom quartile and 30.8% to the top, as of a Thursday update from the California Department of Public Health, narrowing the gap from 17 points to 12.
In another major change at the start of this week, the state directed providers to open eligibility to those ages 16 through 64 with disabilities or preexisting medical conditions that put them at higher risk from COVID-19.
Despite recent concerns aired by the head of UC Davis Health and other local officials, a disability advocate praised the state’s system for not requiring verification of medical conditions from those ages 16 through 64 who qualify for shots based on them, saying it will help California distribute vaccines more equitably.
Requiring a medical note, for instance, could have prevented those without easy access to doctors from getting vaccinated, said Andy Imparato, executive director of Disability Rights California. He also said doctors fighting the pandemic shouldn’t be swamped with their patients requesting notes.
“It’s a trade-off,” Imparato said. “Anything you do to address fraud has potential to create barriers that would limit access to those who need to get access.”
Dr. David Lubarsky, head of UC Davis Health in Sacramento, told The Bee earlier this week that the state’s system risks harming those who are “truly sick” and could open the doors wider for line-cutters. Doses are still limited, he said, with UC Davis Health not having enough doses available to move forward with vaccinating those younger than 65.
“We know people are anxious to get vaccinated, but opening the floodgates without a gate tender will cause more harm than good,” Lubarsky wrote in a statement to the Bee. “With so many people now ... deciding for themselves that they are eligible, this will push truly sick and poor patients farther back in line.”
But Imparato said the state’s system could allow more of those with disability to be vaccinated. Those with schizophrenia, for instance, are at greater risk of dying from COVID-19, even though the disorder isn’t specifically listed as a condition making one eligible for vaccination. The state’s system of not requiring proof means those with schizophrenia would not have a hard time getting inoculated, he said.
“Our hope is this gives local governments a lot of flexibility to do targeted vaccination pop-ups or mobile vaccination strategies,” he said.
Imparato also noted some pharmacies haven’t asked essential workers to provide documentation proving their eligibility.
“If we’re not asking essential workers to prove essential workers, I don’t know why we would ask those with high-risk disabilities to prove their disabilities,” he said.
More doses for the homeless
Sacramento ramped up its efforts Thursday to inoculate unsheltered people who are living on the streets.
The city fire department, in conjunction with Councilwoman Katie Valenzuela, UC Davis Health and advocates for the homeless, fanned out along streets under the W-X freeway Thursday morning, carrying coolers of Johnson & Johnson vaccines and offering shots to some of the hundreds of people living in the area in tent encampments.
Valenzuela’s chief of staff Michelle Pariset said the group had only 100 doses to offer in this round, but plans to continue the shots tomorrow at the Loaves & Fishes campus downtown, and will do more vaccinations among unhoused people next week.
“It went well. We’re going to need more doses,” Pariset said.
California’s vaccine campaign by the numbers
CDPH on its online vaccine data tracker shows providers have administered 13,382,046 doses to date, an increase by 344,489 over Wednesday’s total. CDPH says providers have administered an average of about 232,000 doses per day over the past week.
The state reports about 4.65 million people are now fully vaccinated — about 12% of California’s total population and 15% of its adult population — and an additional 4.36 million are partially vaccinated.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now says about 23% of California’s total population and 30% of its adults are at least partially vaccinated.
Weekly federal allocations to California are growing slowly at the moment, but are expected to increase significantly in April as Johnson & Johnson increases shipments of its single-dose vaccine.
The CEO of Blue Shield, the insurer hired as California’s third-party administrator for the vaccine effort, said last week the state expects weekly allocations to grow from about 1.6 million now to 2.5 million before the end of April.
The state reports that providers have received 17.2 million total doses, meaning the state has administered about 78% of what it has received.
How many doses have been given across Sacramento area?
These are the totals for combined first and second doses, administered through Wednesday, as reported by the state public health department, by recipient county of residence.
▪ Sacramento: 462,240 (29,480 doses per 100,000 residents)
▪ El Dorado: 64,049 (33,169 doses per 100,000)
▪ Placer: 155,971 (38,950 doses per 100,000)
▪ Yolo: 84,179 (37,645 doses per 100,000)
Figures may be undercounts due to data reporting delays.
Northern California VA locations giving vaccines
Veterans Affairs Northern California Health Care is now offering COVID-19 vaccination to veterans at 11 clinic locations: Auburn, Chico, Fairfield, Mare Island, Martinez, Mather, McClellan, Oakland, Redding, Yreka and Yuba City.
Enrolled veterans are eligible regardless of age.
Veterans can book appointments online using the My HealtheVet portal; or by calling 1-800-382-8387 between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. on weekdays.
More details are available at northerncalifornia.va.gov.
Sacramento-area health offices, public clinics and pharmacies
Most county health offices are splitting their direct allocations between their own county-run clinics, non-chain hospitals and other partners, including some Safeway pharmacies.
CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens offer vaccine appointments at some of their pharmacies across California, including some in Sacramento, El Dorado and Placer counties, as part of a federal retail pharmacy partnership.
Rite Aid announced last week that it was expanding eligibility and prioritizing scheduling for teachers, school staff and child care workers in California. The pharmacy chain on Thursday announced that it was extended this expanded priority for teachers through the rest of March.
CVS said earlier this month it would be offering shots at 119 more of its pharmacies. That’s in addition to the 167 locations already offering the vaccine in California, as well as 600 Target stores nationwide where CVS has a pharmacy.
Sacramento
▪ Received directly: Not reported.
▪ Administered: 349,960 to Sacramento County residents through last Friday. Of those, 234,894 were first doses and 115,066 were second doses.
Health officer Dr. Olivia Kasirye said in a Thursday morning briefing that Sacramento County has been told it will get 20,300 doses in its next weekly shipment, but that officials don’t expect more than 15,000 or so a week for the next few weeks after that.
Rachel Allen, the county vaccine coordinator, said the county still has not been “onboarded” with third-party administrator Blue Shield, and does not know what the county’s continued role on vaccinations will be once that happens.
The county has expanded eligibility to farm workers, restaurant employees and janitors as it advances within Phase 1B of the rollout.
It is also making a major push to vaccinate homeless who live under local freeways.
The county last week opened a new drive-thru clinic at Bayside Church in midtown on 19th Street, operated by Safeway. That clinic is offering the J&J single-dose vaccine Wednesday and Thursday of this week and next week, by appointment only.
Sacramento County continues to offer drive-thru vaccine clinics at Cal Expo, McClellan Park and Natomas High School; and walk-thru clinics at California Northstate University in Elk Grove and at Sacramento State.
All clinics require appointments in advance. Scheduling and booking information can be found at dhs.saccounty.net. Residents can sign up online for all except the Natomas High clinic; for that, residents must call 916-561-5253 on Mondays between 8 a.m. and 11 a.m. to make an appointment, according to the county.
Sacramento also has CVS, Rite Aid and Walgreens stores participating in the federal partnership program, and the county is also partnered with 11 Safeway pharmacies.
The McClellan Park, Sacramento State and Northstate clinics offer the Pfizer vaccine, meaning a three-week wait between doses. Cal Expo and Safeway pharmacies offer Moderna, a four-week wait.
El Dorado
▪ Received: 48,370 total doses.
▪ Administered: 47,618 doses as of March 5, according to the county website.
El Dorado announced clinic dates for its South Lake Tahoe health office for the rest of March and early April.
Robinson’s Pharmacy on Main Street in Placerville is taking appointments through CalVax, the state’s online vaccine registration system.
The county offers clinics for El Dorado residents ages 65 and older in the parking structure at Red Hawk Casino in Placerville on Thursdays, also available through CalVax. That clinic is now offering first-dose as well as second-dose appointments.
Walgreens in Cameron Park and the CVS store on Palmer Drive in Cameron Park are also now offering Moderna vaccine appointments as part of the federal retail pharmacy partnership.
The county is also partnered with six Safeway stores.
More detailed information on county-run and county-partnered vaccine clinics can be found at edcgov.us/Government/hhsa/edccovid-19-clinics.
Placer
▪ Received: 78,370 through Feb. 28. Of those, roughly half were retained by the public health office while the remaining half were transferred to other health providers.
▪ Administered: Placer says county residents had received 75,981 first doses and 39,440 second doses through the end of February, but this total is not broken down by provider. It includes those given at county-run clinics and by hospital systems.
Placer offers most of its county-run clinics at The Grounds, formerly the Placer County Fairgrounds, in Roseville. Appointments are required in advance. All clinics this week are fully booked, according to the county website.
The Grounds clinic is open for Placer County residents ages 65 and older, ages 16 through 64 with qualifying medical conditions and essential workers in Phase 1A or 1B who are employed in Placer County.
Placer is also partnered with eight Safeway pharmacies throughout the county.
More information on county-run clinics and Safeway partners in Placer is available at placer.ca.gov/vaccineclinics.
According to the CVS website, there are stores participating in the federal vaccine partnership in Auburn and Rocklin. There may also be availability at Rite Aid and Walgreens stores; users should check with individual stores for eligibility, the county says.
Appointments have also been made at Remedy RX Pharmacy in Roseville through a local partnership.
Yolo
▪ Received: Not reported since early February.
▪ Administered: 15,800 first doses and 12,487 second doses through Tuesday, county spokeswoman Jenny Tan said Thursday. Numbers did not change compared to a Monday update because there were no county-run clinics on Monday, and Tuesday and Wednesday’s numbers have not yet been input to the system.
Yolo County’s vaccination website says the county is operating five clinics this week, all private, including for agriculture workers, education workers and jail inmates.
More details regarding county-run clinics are available on the county website at yolocounty.org.
Hospital systems
Hospital systems operating in multiple counties receive their own allocations from the state.
Sutter Health announced Tuesday that it is resuming the booking of first-dose appointments in the valley area — its large clinics in Sacramento, Roseville, Modesto, Stockton and Tracy — after it had suspended new appointments for about a month and rescheuled more than 20,000 second-dose appointments due to inadequate supply from the state
Sutter says it has administered more than 400,000 doses to date.
UC Davis Health is vaccinating “patients who work in education and childcare, emergency services, and food and agriculture” in line with the state’s Phase 1B guidelines, according to its website, but has not yet begun offering shots to those with high-risk medical conditions.
Kaiser Permanente is now vaccinating patients 65 and older, and recently started booking appointments for patients based on occupation. Essential workers in the fields of education, child care, food and agriculture, emergency services, health care and long-term care are all now eligible for shots via Kaiser.
In an update this week, Kaiser Permanente said it had administered about 655,000 of the 860,000 doses it has received at Northern California facilities, and has more than 283,000 future appointments scheduled.
Kaiser Permanente says on its website it is offering vaccines to Kaiser members as well as non-members.
Dignity Health’s Mercy Medical Group says it has begun using the state’s My Turn website to schedule vaccination appointments.
This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 12:26 PM.
