Santa Clara Co. Leaders Concerned About Decreased Vaccine Demand

SANTA CLARA COUNTY, CA — Santa Clara County public health officials expressed concern on Friday about a decrease in demand for the COVID-19 vaccine, specifically pleading for young adults to get vaccinated.

As of Friday, the county has vaccinated two-thirds of its eligible residents. But adults between the ages of 18 and 29 make up the highest number of unvaccinated individuals in the county among any age group, and only a third of teenagers ages 16 and 17 have been vaccinated. Adults between the ages of 18 and 34 currently have the highest rate of infection in the county among any age group.

Though case rates are flattening or decreasing and the county has vaccinated well over a million residents, officials made clear that the work isn’t complete until everyone who is eligible has received a shot. At the beginning of the vaccine rollout, the main task was to meet the heightened demand for the vaccine among seniors and immunocompromised people despite limited supply.

But now, officials are faced with perhaps an even bigger challenge: Getting the message through to people who might be hesitant or apathetic to the benefits of getting a vaccine.

At a news briefing on Friday at William C. Overfelt High School in East San Jose, an area hit particularly hard by the virus, Dr. Marty Fenstersheib, the county's COVID-19 testing and vaccine officer, pushed back against a misconception among young people that COVID is no big deal.

“It is a big deal,” Fenstersheib said. “We’ve seen a lot of young people hospitalized, young people with long-term infections that go on for months and months and months. The vaccine — maybe you get a little bit of a sore arm or a little bit of a fever for a day. Is that a price to pay for not getting the vaccine and putting yourself at risk for having COVID and ending up with a long-term situation? We’re not going to be safe until everybody is protected.”

Overfelt High School Principal Vito Chiala added that the ability for a full, in-person return to school in the fall depends on the community getting vaccinated.

“We don’t want to lose another year of seniors to Zoom classes,” Chiala said.

Andrea Hernandez, a senior at Overfelt, has been vaccinated and urged her peers to do so as well. Hernandez said that false social media rumors, such as how the vaccine is not important or that youth don’t need to take it because they aren’t at high risk, are contributing to the low turnout.

“More children or more kids my age should be going on [social media] and telling everybody about how the vaccine is very important and about how, ‘I got it and how I want to keep everybody safe,’” Hernandez said. “It’s more of doing it for the community.”

Visit sccfreevax.org for more information on vaccinations in Santa Clara County.

For more news and information about the vaccine rollout in California, visit Patch's information hub. Also, be sure to check out How To Get The Coronavirus Vaccine In California.