We all lamented how slow SF and the state had administered the vaccines. Although usage figures are rising, the increase is not enough to stop Alabama from jumping over CA, which now makes us dead last in the country for the percentage of shots used.
Yes, that’s right: a southern state that ranks 46th in the country in terms of access to health care resources is statistically doing a better job of distributing COVID-19 vaccines than California. As reported by SFGate, the vaccination of Bloomberg – a digestible e-tool that helps determine how well vaccines are doing across the country, which also assesses the state’s efforts to deliver the shots – the national vaccine use increased from 38.8% last week to 48.6% this week. Last week, Alabama had dead-last on the rankings; California, however, was not far behind in 49th place. But those tables have since turned – and The Golden State is now infested with the descriptor.
(In a strange form of irony, Texas, Florida, and New York each fared much better in the rankings, with percentages of shots using 56.1%, 51.3%, and 56.5%, respectively.)
The reasons for the slow explosion of vaccines in California are as complex as they are many. First, the large population and size of the state have exacerbated every issue currently available. Although many smaller states can vaccinate their health care workers, first responders, and other dangerous groups – the first of which must receive the vaccine – California must have large numbers of people in the group before it can move to the wider distribution of the vaccine among the general public.
The ‘come one, come all’ model that the United States has for administering flu vaccines will not cut it for COVID-19; the pathogen responsible for the disease affects vulnerable populations much worse than the seasonal flu.)
Then there is the geography of the state.
As mentioned in a recent KQED highlight on ‘The Bay’ podcast, Devin Katayama of the program points out that the CA’s size and terrain have created even more headaches that transport the fragile vaccine to storage areas. Unlike other vaccines, Moderna and Pfizer’s COVID -19 shots required freezing temperatures, most hospitals could not meet without the installation of special cooling systems. That’s why CA’s distribution of doses began to slow significantly in December – exacerbated by the fact that the Trump administration has no clear national plan for rolling out the vaccine.
Then California saw problems with the vaccine distribution software (so people could not get the doses they needed); qualified health professionals have become cautious about administering residual doses to those outside the first group (although currently allowed under certain criteria) because CA officials have previously promised those who try to abuse their power or their position to abuse the vaccine ; and a lack of administration sites with which medical professions such as dentists, pharmacists and others can deliver the shots.
The vaccine deployment in California is two months ahead, one (and a half) stack back. And it has now been so badly proven that Alabama, one of the country’s worst countries – which still has the highest percentage of heart disease and infant mortality in the country – had us the best in the distribution of COVID-19.
As the city’s plan to release mass vaccination sites this week, including a recent slump in SF’s “COVID-19 reproduction rates,” the postponement will come. It just can not come fast enough.
Related: Mass vaccination website opens softly at City College – no walk-ups allowed
Teachers, police and food service workers can get the following to get COVID vaccination in California
SF will email or text you if you are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine
Image: A pharmacist-technician prepares a dose of COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine to be administered to a patient at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center on January 21, 2021, in the midst of a surge in coronavirus patients. California has become the first state in the country to record 3 million known COVID-19 infections. Los Angeles County reported more than 250 COVID-19 deaths on January 21 (Photo by Mario Tama / Getty Images)