Los Angeles continued to struggle with the spread of the COVID-19 vaccine due to a variety of factors, as officials pushed forward with efforts to vaccinate the black and Latino communities in service.
The city has postponed more vaccinations for the vaccination planned for Saturday, as vaccination vaccination continues to sit through the winter weather that has hampered most of the country.
It was not immediately clear how many appointments will be affected, but the delays will occur at the large-scale vaccination sites run by the city in Hansen Dam Recreation Area, San Fernando Park, Lincoln Park, Pierce College, Crenshaw Christian Center and Dodger Stadium.
Officials have already pushed back 12,500 appointments scheduled for Friday due to supply disruptions. City-run mobile vaccination clinics will continue to operate on schedule.
Officials said Thursday afternoon that the weather delays had not yet disrupted operations at vaccination sites run by LA County, including the Pomona Fairplex, the Forum in Inglewood, Northridge, the county’s education office, Six Flags Magic Mountain, Balboa Sports Complex. and El Sereno Recreation Center.
The new postponement, announced by LA Mayor Eric Garcetti on Friday, is the latest dropout of the winter weather which devastated much of the land, with days of icy rain, ice and snow that removed power from the road, caused flights and created dangerous travel conditions.
According to city officials, the bad weather bound two LA-bound vaccines of Moderna vaccine, which contains a total of 63,000 doses.
The main manufacturing facilities for the country’s two COVID-19 vaccines – manufactured by Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech – are in Massachusetts and Michigan.
The state has provided for intensified deliveries of vaccines in the coming weeks, but that was before the winter storms struck. And the distribution would have brought in far fewer doses than are needed to work quickly through the queue of people eligible to receive vaccinations.
California – along with the rest of the country – is struggling with a shortage of vaccines, and officials said they have the ability, but not the stock, to vaccinate significantly more people.
An ongoing challenge is that both available COVID-19 vaccines require two doses, which are administered three or four weeks apart.
Lately, the need to give second shots has prompted officials across the country to largely limit access to first doses.
Meanwhile, officials are making efforts to sustain more vaccines to communities.
“We are still seeing excessively low vaccination rates among many of our black and Latino populations and communities, reflecting not only historical mistrust and community trauma, but also the structural barriers that exist between too many Angelenos and their access to vaccines.” Garcetti said Thursday. “We have to break down the barriers.”
His comments come after the data showed that residents of Black, Latino and Indian are 65 years and older receive lower doses of COVID-19 vaccinations as their white, Asian American and Pacific Islanders.
In LA County, Latinos see 40 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 residents per day and Black residents see 20 deaths, compared to 14 deaths per 100,000 white residents per day.
Neighborhoods will prefer mobile vaccination clinics that use medical vulnerability indicators developed by UCLA researchers, including the prevalence of existing health conditions, barriers to access to service, environmental risks and social vulnerability.
Mobile vaccination services were expanded this week to South Park, Green Meadows and Boyle Heights; in the coming days it will include Chinatown, Vermont Square and Pico-Union, the city said in a news release. By the end of March, the city hopes to have additional sites in East LA, South LA, Northeast LA and the East San Fernando Valley.