You have more vaccination questions, and Lindsey Mendez – a member of the province’s Vaccination Task Force – has more answers on vaccines. Addressed: Government bond efforts and how they are implemented here, Pfizer / Moderna versus J&J, the upcoming contract with Blue Shield to serve as a nationwide vaccine administrator and more.
Video above, rough transcript below.
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Thank you for joining us for media availability on March 11 at Family Nurse Practitioner and Humboldt County Vaccine Task Force member Lindsey Mendez. Lindsey wants to start with a short message about the vaccine Janssen or Johnson & Johnson.
Hello Humboldt County. This is again Lindsey Mendez, the family nurse in communicable diseases at public health. I’m going to talk about vaccine today and I want to give a little introduction again about the efforts that the Department of Public Health is currently making with the Janssen vaccine. I would like the community to understand that the Janssen vaccine is a single dose at the moment, would be very helpful if we are looking at rural people who are having difficulty entering clinics and also with people who are homeless in shelters. We are currently working with our other healthcare providers in the area to launch these vaccines this week and next week. So we are very excited.
From the North Coast News: The health official said earlier this week that some postcodes that fall into the lowest percentage of the CA Healthy Places Index are in Humboldt and will be preferred by the state in terms of vaccination. Where are these postal codes located? How does this affect our weekly allocation of vaccines from the state?
Yes. Currently, the state is using allocation tools to look at how we can have better equity in areas of certain zip codes. In these stock charts, they recommend that we use 20% of our doses in certain regions of Humboldt County. With that said, the regions are very wide. Around the country, it’s mostly in areas where we’ve already been vaccinated. We try to get more into the southern Humboldt and eastern regions, but the zip codes generally contain Eureka, Arcata and then parts of SoHum like Petrolia and Blocksburg and then into the northern regions like Klamath. So we will work on it, just like our clinics did.
From North Coast News: A new Israeli study shows that Pfizer is more effective than first thought. Could this be the case for the Moderna and Johnson and Johnson? How could J&J achieve efficiency in one shot?
The way in which the Janssen vaccine is created with a DNA vaccine that is an adenovirus vector vaccine, and the way in which the ear proteins are introduced into the body, makes it a one-vaccine vaccine by building up over time. the moment not necessary to have a booster dose. And I’ll say it again: the Johnson Johnson builds slowly over weeks when you have it, which is a little different than the mRNA vaccine, but it still reduces the serious death and hospitalization of COVID-19. With the Pfizer vaccine and the Israeli investigation that took place because they studied the transmission, it’s actually what we’re talking about with the Pfizer, that they report how they compare the cases between the fully vaccinated and those who have not yet done so. not. vaccinated at all and looked at how effective it was to prevent the transmission of COVID-19. This study showed 90% at that time. Therefore, you need to understand that the research is still taking place at Moderna and Janssen and that we will get more information as we move forward.
From North Coast News: Alaska has now become the first state to make vaccinations for 16-year-olds. Do you think the criteria for getting the chance will change in California soon? How big is the benefit of being eligible for a younger age?
I understand that Alaska is currently expanding its population and that the state of California is looking at April 1 as a date on which we will expand the population and who can be vaccinated at what level. With that said, I have to remind the public that the Pfizer vaccine can be given to 16-year-olds, but no other vaccine like Moderna or Janssen is currently approved. With that said, we’ll also remind the public that even if it opens up to a wider range of ages and occupations, we will be looking at risk factors and age while people in California wait to be vaccinated.
From North Coast Journal: Has the province gained more clarity from Blue Shield or the state on how vaccine allocation and distribution are likely to change once Blue Shield takes over the third party next month?
The Department of Public Health is currently in meetings with Blue Shield and we are talking to our allocation managers and account managers who will assist us with the allocation process in Humboldt County, specifically for the providers in this area who will be giving vaccine. The award process goes through Blue Shield to every supplier who is able to give vaccine in Humboldt County – I must specifically say the COVID-19 vaccine in Humboldt County – and we will also be contracting with Blue Shield in the Department of Public Health . that we can spread vaccine through them. With that said, we do not know exactly how they are going to break down their allocation process with the local health law areas and also with providers, and we will know more in the next few weeks.
From North Coast Journal: How does the state change the focus on vaccinating residents in the lowest quartile of postcodes for healthy places, the Humboldt County vaccination strategy? How does the country work to identify and prioritize residents in these postal codes that qualify for the vaccine?
This is a great question and fortunately we have been working on these stock plans since the beginning of the vaccination task force when the COVID-19 vaccine arrived in Humboldt County. That’s why we’ve been opening clinics in areas over the past few months to ensure equity. We give vaccinations to clinics in Willow Creek and Garberville and in Redway. We have done massages in Arcata and in Eureka to ensure that we can reach populations that we would not normally get. We are eager to expand our clinics in the southern and eastern regions and even in the northern regions to get population who have transportation problems. We are therefore excited to see when we partner with Blue Shield how it will continue with their performance benchmarks.
From the North Coast Journal: Public Health reported this week that a quarter of those currently eligible are now fully vaccinated locally. At the same time, the province is eligible for a new group of people – 65 years and older – with food and agricultural workers and people with co-morbidities who are expected to be eligible in the coming weeks. Are there logistical concerns about the fact that so many people are eligible for vaccinations when supply remains so limited? If so, what is it and how does the country work to navigate through the challenges?
This is a very important topic that we discuss daily in our vaccination committees. Since we are opening up the population that is capable of being vaccinated, as wonderful as it is because our goal is to have herd immunity and end the pandemic, we are also very aware that there are specific people in our population who are the most vulnerable are fragile and we need to pay attention to being the department of public health and good managers of our vaccine. We are actively working to get vaccinations for people who may not be able to leave home or people who are homeless, and we are also looking at how we can best vaccinate people who work in things like agricultural or factory settings. So this is something we continue to talk about actively.
From North Coast Journal: If the country were to receive enough vaccine doses tomorrow to vaccinate every adult Humboldt County resident, what’s the best estimate from Public Health on how long it will take to get all the shots in the arms? What is the country’s largest vaccination per day?
At the moment, it is very difficult to give an exact number of what the highest vaccination per day would be, due to the amount of providers we help vaccinate in different places, from pharmacies to hospitals. What we have seen is that when we do mass vaccinations – mass vaccination clinics – in the country, whether it is a public health department or other providers, we have noticed that our maximum capacity is currently a little over a thousand clinics. With that said, other people usually get vaccinated on a smaller scale daily.
From KMUD: Can you talk about the different efficacy figures of all three approved vaccines?
Yes. At the moment, the CDC tells us that the Pfizer vaccine is 95% effective, the Moderna 94% effective and the Janssen 67%.
From KMUD: What is currently being done to ensure that our Latinx community receives vaccinations?
The Department of Public Health in Humboldt County currently finds the Latinx community the highest priority. Like I said last week, we are actively recruiting people to work at our clinic who can speak Spanish and be interpreters, and they can be vaccinations or admin or other staff needed to run a vaccination clinic. I want to reassure the community that public health currently has many community stakeholder meetings to help us vaccinate everyone in Humboldt County.
From KMUD: Who are the preferred recipients of the single-shot vaccine Johnson and Johnson?
Due to the CDC’s recommendations on how we can best use a single dose of vaccine, we have now decided to use the vaccine with people with transportation problems. They may not be able to go to the doctor right away, or people who work in certain facilities, such as agricultural centers and factories.
From redhead black belt: Can you give us an update on how the vaccinations are distributed with reference to the local survey that many people sent back, is it helpful to help coordinate the vaccine appointments?
Yes of course. From the information I received from the Joint Information Center, the forms of interest and surveys completed helped them fill out clinics and get people on waiting lists. It also helped close the gap between those who may not have devices and those who need help with planning. The Joint Information Center would like to remind you that you can go to their website at any time to search for the form of interest in English and Spanish at humboldtgov.org. If you experience problems, you can call them.
From Red Headed Blackbelt: Has the Department of Public Health received feedback from community members on the recently announced planned closure of the Redwood Memorial Labor and Delivery Unit?
Thanks Kym, but no, this is not a vaccine question and I can not answer it today.