Riverside County Calls Out 'Inequitable' Vaccine Distribution

RIVERSIDE COUNTY, CA — Riverside County is not receiving its fair share of COVID-19 vaccines from the state, and there is ongoing concern that residents who were vaccinated with a first dose will not be able to get a second shot within the recommended time period, according to comments made Tuesday during the county Board of Supervisors meeting.

"I am absolutely enraged right now," said Supervisor Jeff Hewitt, whose 5th District includes the San Gorgonio Pass area.

Often critical of Sacramento, Hewitt was responding to an update from Kim Saruwatari, director of public health for Riverside County. She told the board the county has not received as many vaccine doses as some other counties because of a state algorithm that favored regions with a higher population of health care workers. Recent distribution data showed Santa Clara and San Diego counties ahead of Riverside County based on their higher numbers of health care workers, Saruwatari said.

Older people should be first in line to get the vaccine because they are more likely to die from COVID-19 than younger health care workers, Hewitt argued. "Where's the data?" that showed otherwise, the supervisor asked.

More than two-thirds of all Riverside County COVID-19 deaths are people ages 65 and older, according to Riverside University Health System-Public Health data.

Saruwatari said that 33 percent of Riverside County's population of people 75 and older have been vaccinated against COVID-19. Just 26 percent of residents between 65 and 74 have been vaccinated. (The figures don't include skilled nursing facility residents.)

It's unclear how many older Riverside County residents have declined to get vaccinated and how many are still awaiting their second shot.

Riverside County has received a total of 268,450 COVID-19 vaccine doses as of Tuesday, according to RUHS data. All but about 11,000 of the doses have been administered.

Supervisor Kevin Jeffries, whose 1st District includes Lake Elsinore and Wildomar, said he was skeptical of the state's distribution algorithm and questioned why "wealthier" counties received a higher number of doses.

"This just smells bad," the former state Assembly member said.

"The state’s allocation process has been based on the populations eligible for the vaccine," Darrel Ng, senior communications advisor on the California Department of Public Health's COVID-19 vaccine task force, said Tuesday in an emailed statement. "We understand and sympathize with the county’s desire for additional doses, one shared by all counties, states and countries. In a global pandemic, there is simultaneous demand for vaccines by 7 billion people, and supply is constrained by manufacturing. We will continue to work with the federal government to obtain additional vaccines for the state."

Blue Shield of California has been tapped to create and manage a statewide administration network to distribute vaccines directly to health care providers, which Saruwatari said could bring about a more "equitable" process moving forward.

"Our goal is to work closely with the state to help ensure safe and equitable distribution of the vaccination in the quickest way possible," an emailed statement from Blue Shield spokesman Mark Seelig said. "At Blue Shield of California, our mission as a nonprofit health plan is to help ensure all Californians have access to quality, affordable healthcare, and our commitment is to help California solve this public health crisis at cost without making profit from the state. We appreciate the work that’s already been in place for vaccinations and look forward to working with our local leaders, health officials and healthcare professionals throughout the state to save lives and overcome this pandemic."

The handover to Blue Shield of California comes at a time of growing concern that, given the limited number of vaccines available, Riverside County and its partner providers are not prioritizing people who have already received a first dose.

RUHS' Dr. Geoffrey Leung confirmed to the board Tuesday that there aren't enough doses for everyone who is eligible to get vaccinated and that the county is "living week by week" in terms of vaccines received.

Leung last month told the public that a second dose could be received as far out as "two, three, four months out" from the first. On Tuesday, he seemed to clarify his earlier statement. A second shot of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine can be received three to six weeks after the first dose, while a second shot of the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine can be received four to six weeks after the first dose, Leung said.

Riverside County health officials announced last week that residents who received their first dose at a county-operated clinic were being contacted for a second-dose appointment.

Jeffries called on county public health officials to ensure that appointments are offered and pointed to Los Angeles County, which on Monday announced that for the rest of the week its five large-scale vaccination sites will only administer second doses.

"Please try to figure this out as soon as possible," Jeffries told the public health officials.