Vaccine: Some Essential Workers Will Still Have Priority Access

CULVER CITY, CA — Los Angeles County officials said Tuesday they will follow state guidance in moving away from vaccinating residents by occupation and will focus instead solely on age — once a significant number of the roughly 3 million people who qualify in this tier or the next get their shots.

The county is currently vaccinating health care workers and residents 65 years and older, who were made eligible based on recent federal and state guidance.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health Tuesday confirmed 291 new deaths and 5,927 new cases of COVID-19. To date, the department identified 1,085,044 positive cases of COVID-19 across all areas of L.A. County and a total of 15,592 deaths.

Beginning in mid-February, eligibility will expand to include workers in education and child care, emergency services and food and agricultural, which county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said amounts to roughly 1.4 million people. There are about 1.5 million adults 65 or older countywide.

"We are going to need to work with the state and with the federal government to get a lot of vaccine supplied, but I think after that, they are going to dispense with the tiering and move to prioritization by age group, which will be so much simpler," Ferrer said.

Ferrer said she didn't yet have details on how those age groups would break down. A news release in which Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a plan to streamline allocation did not offer additional specifics.

RELATED: CA Vaccine: Priority Shifts To Age, Revamps Delivery System

Ferrer and various board members expressed optimism that the administration of President Joe Biden will be more transparent than the previous one about future supply, which could also make distribution more efficient.

Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia told the board that his city, which has its own health department, stands ready to help vaccinate residents in surrounding cities. "We would love the county to consider allocating its vaccine for the cities around us," Garcia said.

County Supervisor Janice Hahn asked Ferrer whether the county was likely to give up its scarce vaccine supply to others, noting that Long Beach has been able to distribute 100 percent of its doses.

"We're going to do everything we can to help with getting those doses out," Ferrer said. "We are particularly anxious to partner with any health care partners who are willing to open up vaccination sites."

The public health director said Los Angeles County's own distribution is complicated by the sheer number of eligible residents in every category, including health care workers who work in the county but are not residents.

The county distributed 76 percent of the doses it had received as of Jan. 12, the latest available data. That does not include doses allocated directly to Walgreens and CVS through federal partnerships or to large health systems such as Kaiser Permanente across multiple counties or doses sent to the Long Beach or Pasadena public health departments.

The state is building out a network to deliver vaccine more efficiently to all the entities licensed to vaccinate residents, including public health systems, pharmacies, health systems, public hospitals, community health centers, pharmacies and pop-up and mobile sites. According to the governor, the system will focus on getting vaccine to high-throughput sites.

Ferrer told the board she believed Los Angeles County could get up to 300,000 doses weekly "into people's arms" at the 190 sites currently open and "easily" build — within a week or two — to 500,000 doses per week. That would stretch capacity in future weeks when second doses need to be delivered, she said, requiring the county to build more infrastructure over time.

The state's new approach will "continue to focus on equity," according to Newsom's office. "Vaccines will be allocated to make sure low-income neighborhoods and communities of color have access to vaccines, and providers will be compensated in part by how well they are able to reach underserved communities. Real-time data will allow for adjustments to be made if initial equity targets are not met."

Supervisor Holly Mitchell expressed concerns about new vaccine megasites in Los Angeles drawing doses away from the hardest-hit communities.

Ferrer said the county was doing everything it could to accommodate an equitable distribution of doses, cutting back appointments at megacenters to open up more federally qualified health center sites, for example.

But, she acknowledged, "It's still hard to divide a pie that's still way too small."

Sharing data on distribution by geography, Ferrer expressed concern about the relatively small number of health care workers being vaccinated in South Central Los Angeles. Health care workers get vaccinated at work rather than at home, but she said the county is moving aggressively to open up more vaccination sites in that area, including two locations on the Martin Luther King Jr. Medical Center campus, three Rite Aid pharmacies and a site hosted by Providence St. John’s Health Center.

"The one issue that we don't want to have driving low numbers is lack of access," Ferrer said.

The county's Black health care workers have been getting vaccinated at a much lower rate than those of any other racial group, largely due to concerns about safety, according to Dr. Christina Ghaly, who runs the county hospital system.

"There's just a lot of concerns about this being a new vaccine ... without full [Food and Drug Administration] approval," Ghaly said, underlining that the vaccine has been authorized for emergency use.

Ghaly stressed that it is not a live virus vaccine, cannot cause COVID-19 and does not interact with preexisting conditions, concerns she has heard raised by staff.

Both Ghaly and Ferrer said listening and getting information out through more trusted messengers are key to increased participation over time.

Homebound seniors are another concern. Ferrer said a mobile health care unit that has been working with skilled nursing facilities may be redeployed to reach out to large senior housing developments to get residents vaccinated.

The county is also working with ride-hailing companies to provide free or low-cost transportation for seniors to vaccination sites.

Hahn put forth a motion asking for a plan for partnering with school sites as another way to make getting a shot more convenient.

Ferrer said that planning was already underway, a point underlined by Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner.

"We have more than 1,400 schools located in residential communities," Beutner told the board. "The necessary infrastructure is already in place... we have school-based clinics already licensed."

Ferrer said that LAUSD is going to open up 11 sites to help vaccinate older adults as well as teachers, and said she expected those sites to open sometime in February.

The board also sought to correct various misinformation about the vaccine and how it is being distributed.

Ferrer stressed that vaccine is not being thrown away at sites. Workers are careful not to load syringes until someone is in line for a vaccination, she said. If partial vials are available at the end of the day despite that careful allocation, Ferrer said volunteers helping out at vaccine sites are allowed to get shots.

Supervisor Kathryn Barger, who like the other supervisors had recently visited vaccine sites to see the work in action, agreed. "We recognize how important and valuable this vaccine is," she said.

Frustration remains with the county's appointment website, in part because dates can only be scheduled out a week at a time given uncertainties about how much vaccine will be available. Pharmacies are also being urged to use all their vaccine the week it arrives.

"No one is really willing to schedule out past a week," Ferrer said. "I do think February will be much more predictable."

It's been one year since the first COVID-19 case was detected in Los Angeles County, county health officials said Tuesday. Residents are still urged not to gather in crowds, stay home if they are sick, wear a face covering and maintain physical distance from others when outside their home.

"One year ago today, Public Health announced its first case of coronavirus in Los Angeles County," officials said in a statement. "Since then, over 1 million cases have been reported and nearly 16,000 deaths; January is trending to be the deadliest month in the pandemic. And while this virus is still novel and researchers continue to learn new details about COVID-19, one thing we know for certain is how it spreads and how to prevent its spread."

City News Service and Patch Editor Nicole Charky contributed to this report.

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