Herd Immunity On The Horizon, LA Expands Vaccine Eligibility

LOS ANGELES, CA — Everyone ages 16 and up will become eligible for the coronavirus vaccine in the city of Los Angeles Tuesday and countywide on Thursday. The expanded eligibility comes during a week in which the county weathers a notable drop in the supply of vaccines, prompting a rash of appointment cancelations on Monday.

As more people become eligible for the vaccine, Los Angeles County grapples with widening racial and gender disparities among the vaccinated. Black men, one of the hardest-hit segments of the population, have the lowest vaccination rate. Men, in general, have been slower to get vaccinated than women, Los Angeles County health officials said Monday.

County officials have struggled to reach underserved communities since the vaccine was approved. Widespread vaccination is seen as key to reaching herd immunity and stopping the spread of the coronavirus. Though far short of herd immunity, the Los Angeles region has succeeded in staving off the spring surge that has battered the East Coast and Michigan. That may be because the California variant has edged out the more contagious and deadly U.K. variant of the coronavirus.

“If it was the U.K. variant [that was dominating California], we’d be in worse shape,” said Dr. Robert Wachter, chair of the UC San Francisco Department of Medicine told the Los Angeles Times.

Seen as 50 percent more contagious than the original coronavirus, the U.K. variant could still come to dominate in California warned health officials. It is the variant currently driving the surge in Michigan.

That is why state officials are racing to get as many people vaccinated as possible. There is a real chance that California could reach herd immunity before another surge. Dr. George Rutherford, a UC San Francisco epidemiologist told the Times, California could achieve herd immunity by mid-June.

The drive to immunize residents has prompted city and county officials to open more vaccination locations and open up eligibility even as the vaccine supply remains tight.

"Opening vaccine eligibility to all Angelenos who are 16 and older is a major milestone in our efforts to get more shots into more arms and defeat COVID-19 once and for all," Mayor Eric Garcetti said Sunday in announcing the change at city-run sites.

"We urge patience as we continue to ramp up our operations, obtain more doses, and enter this new phase of our campaign to end the pandemic. But our commitment remains clear: as soon as vaccines are available, we are ready to administer them swiftly and safely."

Appointments for the vaccines at city sites can be made at https://carbonhealth.com/covid-19-vaccines/los-angeles. Although the sites are operated by the city, they are open to any Los Angeles County resident.

Those city sites now include the vaccination center at Cal State Los Angeles, which until Sunday was being operated by a partnership between the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Governor's Office of Emergency Services. That federal partnership, which was an eight-week pilot program, ended Sunday, and the city agreed to take over operation of the site to ensure continued access to vaccines in the area.

In addition to CSULA, the city also operates sites at San Fernando Park, Hansen Dam, Crenshaw Christian Center, Lincoln Park, Pierce College, USC University Park, Los Angeles Southwest College and Dodger Stadium.

All sites will be open Tuesday through Saturday between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. Dodger Stadium will only be offering appointments until 1 p.m. this week from Tuesday through Thursday to accommodate home games, although the site will remain open until 4 p.m.

For sites operated by Los Angeles County, shots are still being offered to people aged 50 and older, along with the previously eligible groups of select workers or people with underlying health conditions. The county sites will expand to all people aged 16 and up on Thursday, the day the state officially expands its eligibility to that age group.

Barbara Ferrer, the county's public health director, said people aged 16 and over can start making appointments at county sites on Wednesday through the state's MyTurn.ca.gov scheduling website. She noted that people aged 16 and 17 can only receive the Pfizer vaccine because it is the only one approved for people that young, so teens will have to make appointments at sites that offer that specific shot.

The county this week received an allocation of 323,470 doses of vaccine, a drop of roughly 80,000 from last week, due to a major reduction in the supply of the Johnson & Johnson single-dose vaccine. Health officials anticipate supplies of that vaccine to be increasing again in the coming weeks.

The county's allocation is supplemented by tens of thousands of doses that are sent directly by the federal government and the state to select providers, such as large health care centers and pharmacies.

Ferrer said that there are more than 700 sites across the county this week offering vaccinations, the most to date.

While urging everyone who is eligible to make an appointment and get vaccinated, Ferrer pointed specifically to the sharp disparity between men and women in seeking out the shots. While men have a far higher death rate from COVID-19 than women, only 30% of men in the county have received at least one dose of the vaccine, compared to nearly 44% of women, Ferrer said.

The problem is worse among Black men, with only 19% receiving at least one dose so far, and only 17% of Latino men.

Ferrer called the statistics "staggering," given the higher risk of death men have had from COVID throughout the pandemic.

"What's staggering to realize is that the very group of folks who have the higher mortality rate are now also the group of folks that have the lower vaccination rates, and that's what's troubling," Ferrer said. "That's where we need to focus a lot of additional work so we flip that around."

The county reported an additional three COVID-19 deaths on Monday, bringing the cumulative county death toll during the pandemic to 23,479.

Another 411 cases were also reported, pushing the overall pandemic total in the county to 1,226,191. The numbers of new cases and deaths are typically low on Mondays due to reporting lags from the weekend.

Ferrer noted, however, that the county's average daily number of newly reported cases has dropped to about 400, which is lower than it was one year ago in the early stages of the pandemic.

According to state figures, there were 471 people hospitalized due to COVID in Los Angeles County as of Monday, with 116 people in intensive care.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.