‘We Are So Close’: Health Officials Race To Vaccinate Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES, CA — More vaccines are heading to Los Angeles County next week, as the state shifts to prioritizing zip codes — targeting communities hardest hit by the virus — health officials are racing to get people vaccinated.

To date, 1.6M people in L.A. County have received at least one dose of the vaccine based on the eligible phases, Los Angeles County Public Health Chief Science Officer Dr. Paul Simon said Friday. Just over 800,000 people have received second doses and are fully vaccinated in the county.

Three new sectors are now eligible to get vaccinated at mobile vaccination sites and specific MegaPOD locations as of this week. Beginning next week, the following sectors will be designated days for new sectors at LA County sites:

• Food and agriculture: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday
• 65 and older: Wednesday, Friday
• Education and childcare: Saturday
• Independent Schools: Sunday
• Emergency Services: Wednesday

“We want to make it as easy as possible while also making sure only eligible persons receive the vaccine,” Paul Simon said.

Simon took a moment to address some misinformation about vaccines and set the record straight. People have asked him and other health officials if the Johnson & Johnson is as efficient compared to the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, which require two doses. The J&J vaccine only requires one dose. The answer is simple — all three vaccines are effective.

Simon explained that comparing the vaccines and their efficacy — whether it's J&J, Moderna, or Pfizer — is not valid. All vaccines had different clinical trials that studied different populations, he added.

"Most importantly, the vaccine trials, including the Johnson & Johnson trial, indicated that all three vaccines were highly effective at preventing hospitalization and death due to COVID," Simon said.

"The best vaccine is the one a person can get soonest," Simon said. "No one should delay because they have a preference of one vaccine over another. The risks of COVID are far too great."

The one advantage is that Johnson & Johnson does require one dose, he said. The J&J vaccine does more health care providers an opportunity to potentially participate in vaccinating people and it is also easier to store. But that doesn't make it any more or less effective, he added.

More than 8,000 patients were hospitalized in the county during the recent surge, "bringing our healthcare to the brink of collapse," Simon said. "Fortunately, we have seen a rapid decline more recently with now less than 1,400 hospitalized patients. However, more than 30 percent remain in the ICU, most on ventilators."

But it's not over yet, 700 to 800 patients have remained in hospitals across LA County each day since the surge.

"We cannot let this happen again," Simon said. "We will not be able to continue scaling up vaccinations over the next two to three months if we're dealing with another surge. With President Biden's recent announcement that we will have enough vaccine doses for all adults by the end of May — we are so close."

"I urge everyone to continue to stay disciplined and wearing face masks and physically distancing as recommended," Simon said.

Until more people are vaccinated and hospitalizations are reduced, that will help keep people safe, he said. Simon recommended that people help friends and family who might be eligible to get vaccinated to assist and urge them to get vaccinated by offering rides and helping to set up appointments online.

“Remember, we are all in this together,” Simon said.

There are 1,341 people with COVID-19 currently hospitalized and 32% of these people are in the ICU, according to the county health department as of Friday. The daily number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 continues to steadily decline. Last Friday, the County reported 1,886 daily hospitalizations.

Testing results are available for nearly 5,876,000 individuals with 19% of people testing positive. Today's daily test positivity rate is 2.3% for Friday.

As Los Angeles inches toward the red tier, county health officials anticipate that vaccine supplies will continue to increase. It's unclear what the pace might be.

"We're very excited to have the Johnson & Johnson vaccine this next week, we've been told that there may be a delay for several weeks before we receive another shipment for the end of the month," Simon said.

By April and May, the number of J&J vaccine supply could increase, health officials anticipate.

Keeping cases low is also helping in the fight to stop the virus. New cases are decreasing in the county and trends show it. Health officials are watching the number of cases in hopes that the trend doesn't reverse and no other surges hit the county.

"We’re down to below a thousand cases a day, so that's really good news," Simon said. "And it's continued to go down over the past week."

"Though we will be opening up a bit, it's really critically important that people remained disciplined and wear their face mask when they're out in public, physically distance and avoid large gatherings," Simon said.

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More appointments are expected, he said. There will be hundreds of thousands of first doses. However, all those people will need second doses.

“We’re very much hoping that we’ll continue to get increased supplies,” Simon said.

The state will prioritize zip codes, reflecting economic hardship, social deprivation and other indicators that help people in areas hardest-hit by COVID.

"We do believe that will advantage Los Angeles county," Simon said. "This index is being used across the state and because there are disproportionately."

Ideally, providing the vaccines from health care providers might be a better move in the race to vaccinate, he said.

It also might not be safe for people with preexisting conditions to go to large, public vaccination sites, he added.

"We have worked very hard to get vaccination sites in underserved communities," Simon said.

Health officials are working with community organizations in underserved communities that are already directly assisting clients to register for vaccinations.

One of the biggest barriers is navigating the registration system, Simon said. It all comes down to working together to slow down and prevent the spread of the virus.

"The virus is the enemy. It’s not public health," Simon said. "It’s not one political party or another political party, and we seem to lose appreciation for that I think over the past year. Sadly, this pandemic and response became so politicized and there was so much misinformation that it really made it difficult I think to implement various measures."

Vaccines are key to preventing the spread of the virus. Now, it's a race to complete them.

Under a new contract and with the website MyTurn.ca.gov, the county will join a statewide provider network, which will be overseen by a third party: Blue Shield of California. The change could help get more people vaccinated and give health providers access to the vaccines for their patients.

"I think there are opportunities to expand the supply within that network but also bring on additional providers," he said.

This also pushes back against inequities as people from lower-income, Black and Brown communities struggle to access the vaccine.

"To address the inequities we need more flexibility in our system," Simon said. I think expanding the number of mobile vaccination units will be very helpful."

Mobile strike teams have been helping he said, along with community clinics.

"We know they do a great job of serving persons, groups, that have been hardest hit by the pandemic and they’re trusted providers of care," Simon said.

If supply increases, health care systems in the county’s network could help to increase and provide the vaccinations.

Simon expects PODS will need to continue because they are so productive in terms of volume.

"I think we need to think critically on how to make them more accessible to groups who are receiving vaccinations," he said.

Things have shifted, there is some optimism with the vaccine, and science happens incrementally, he added.

"I think we are moving in a more positive direction," Simon said.

"People are very much itching to get back to normal, wanting to open things up, I would say that's completely understandable," Simon said.

But it's still important to stay cautious — as a surge could challenge vaccinations.

"We just don’t want to see another surge," Simon said. "What a tragedy, personally, for so many families to have lost family members because of the surge."

Virus variants also can prevent a problem, including the British, South African and now Brazilian variant.

"Each week the percentage of isolates that are sequenced that are the British variant are inching up," Simon said. "So we are watching that very closely."

If there's little transmission, these variants will not spread, he added.

"If we can get everybody vaccinated quickly then we're much of a problem if there's little transmission," Simon said. "They need transmission in order to evolve and create problems for us."

People can register for their appointments, find out when they can get vaccinated at vaccinateLACounty.com.

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