LAKE COUNTY— With statewide stay-at-home-orders having been lifted, and the vaccine rollout underway, Senator Mike McGuire (D-CA) brought together a group of experts on Tuesday evening for a virtual Coronavirus Town Hall to discuss the latest updates with the vaccines and to update attendees on how the state and federal governments intend to pick up the pace on distribution, mitigate the spread of the virus and what to expect for the coming few months.
The event was livestreamed through the Senate website, Facebook and phone call. The community participated actively, with thousands of comments and questions.
“The vaccine rollout has not been smooth, both on the federal and at the state level. The problems that we’ve seen at the federal and state levels, the lack of supply, the lack of a concrete distribution plan and confusing eligibility requirements, not only is it disappointing, it’s incredibly frustrating, and it’s unacceptable. All levels of government are working overtime,” said the Senator.
Dr. Timothy Brewer, from UCLA Fielding School of Public Health and Geffen School of Medicine, stated that the efforts to reduce transmission by wearing a mask and staying home if one is sick are going to keep variants of the virus from emerging. “When will it get better? Well, it’s actually getting better now. When will we get back to normal? I’m hoping that summer and fall will be a lot better than winter has been,” said the infectious disease doctor.
“We’re now doing more than 125,000 vaccinations per day”, said the Deputy Director Planning, Preparedness and Prevention from the State Office of Emergency Services and Co-Chair on California’s COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force, Lori Nezhura. “We need to do a better job of providing clear information to the public. With 61 local health jurisdictions, it’s been very confusing for Californians to sign up for appointments and find out the availability of vaccine.”
Nezhura added that state health officials are able to know who’s been allocated vaccines, but reporting back about who’s been vaccinated, and important information about things like their race and ethnicity has been a challenge.
“There’s not been enough vaccine administered fast enough. Part of that has been that we have not gotten the vaccine that we needed from the federal government,” she said. “We’re simplifying the vaccine eligibility framework, standardizing vaccine information and data, and we’re doing our best to address supply by administrating what we have on hand and seeking additional supply from the federal government. We have created a single statewide baseline standard.”
According the deputy, the eligibility guideline includes health care workers, and those in long term care facilities, both the workers and the residents; anyone 65 and above; and emergency services workers, food and agricultural workers; teachers and school staff. “We’re going to standardize vaccine information and data. We’re solving the problem of letting people know when it’s their turn, and addressing the data lab not having precise information available on vaccines. So, we’re leveraging California’s innovation and technology to launch a new scheduling system for Californians, and a data system provider called My Turn – myturn.ca.gov. People will be able to leave their contact information, so that they can be notified when it’s their turn,” she concluded.
“Clearly there is a significant excitement about the opportunity to get vaccinated. We are so fortunate that the scientific community has come forward with vaccines that are really extraordinarily effective and are being distributed with a strong safety profile. But given that, it means that there is demand that right now has outpaced our availability. While hospitals are very impacted by COVID, and have played an extraordinarily important role with pandemic response, our primary role actually has been to treat patients,” said Dr. Roberta Luskin-Hawk, Chief Executive of St. Joseph Health of Humboldt County and infectious disease specialist, “We’re very grateful for the state working with innovators on a platform for people to register, as we work together across our individual communities and across the state.” The doctor also reminded that “people (should) continue to wear their masks and be cautious until we have substantial immunity across our population.”
