Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, said the most obvious problem with vaccine administration in the San Francisco area is clear: “There are not enough doses,” he says. . “That’s it. Everything will work well if you have enough doses.”
The Department of Public Health in San Francisco and hospitals in the city were “surprised” by the lack of doses, said Dr. Rutherford said, and by expanding the suitability for 65 people and older, that the system probably strained. Varying distribution channels for vaccines – such as Kaiser Permanente and the University of California, San Francisco – receiving the doses on their own, made an already complicated distribution system difficult.
“It is therefore difficult for the city to understand exactly what is left, what they need to do, where the holes need to be filled,” said Dr. Rutherford said. Yet there are new vaccination sites in San Francisco, which according to dr. Rutherford will help speed up the process once more doses are available. “There’s this tension between efficiency and fairness,” he said. “It’s never easy.”
Dr Grant Colfax, head of the San Francisco Department of Public Health, said the city was “very close to doses that are running out” and said a lack of overall coordination had led to distribution problems.
“I think what it really is is a continuation of the consequences of the lack of a coordinated federal response,” he said. “Cities and provinces are actually left alone to deal with this pandemic.”
He said local jurisdictions “simply do not have the means and capacity” to deal with the complex effort without assistance. “It manifested in a very tragic way.”
In Austin, Texas, Curt Fisher, a 76-year-old man who served on the boards of several high-tech companies, experienced firsthand the burdensome roadblocks to secure a vaccine. He was playing golf with friends a few weeks ago when they learned that Austin Public Health had vaccinations available.