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Even as San Francisco prepares to expand vaccine eligibility on Wednesday to 168,000 teachers, grocery store workers and first responders who live or work in the city, some may find that they cannot receive their first dose injections for two or three more weeks.
This is because, like many state health departments and providers, San Francisco prioritizes second dose injections. This means they give a second injection to people who got their first vaccine a few weeks ago and delay appointments for the first vaccines until they get more shots. The two vaccines currently available in the United States, manufactured by Pfizer and Moderna, are given as two injections, 21 or 28 days apart.
About 91,000 San Franciscans are expected to receive their second dose in the next two to three weeks, according to the public health department. San Francisco predicts that over the next two weeks, the number of appointments for the first dose will drop significantly from the past two weeks.
High-volume vaccination sites that receive vaccines from regional health care providers also delay appointments for the first dose until they receive a new influx of vaccines. The City College vaccination site, run by San Francisco and UCSF, is only doing second doses this week except Thursday, UCSF spokeswoman Kristen Bole said. Next week there will also be second doses only, unless UCSF receives an additional vaccine.
Sutter Health is on hold for the first dose at all of its nine large-scale vaccination sites in Northern California, including SF Market in Bayview, due to a vaccine shortage. He will reopen the appointments “as soon as more vaccine is available to us,” said Sutter spokeswoman Monique Binkley Smith.
People may have a better chance of getting to the first dose at Oakland Coliseum, which receives its shots directly from the federal government. This is in part because it opened last week, when other sites that have been open for several weeks now do more second doses than the first. The Moscone Center in San Francisco, which uses Kaiser’s vaccines, will also make appointments for the first and second dose once it reopens on Thursday, according to a Kaiser spokesperson. The Moscone site has been closed since mid-February due to the low supply of vaccines.
While delays in appointments for the first dose can be frustrating, this pace was expected.
“These are challenges with any two-dose regimen,” said Dr. Matt Willis, Marin County health official, who during the “leanest” weeks got many more second doses than the ones. first doses and sometimes worried that they might not even have enough second doses for everyone. “But that’s no surprise. The challenge arises when combined with the unpredictability of supply. And scarcity … it’s an operational reality.
Most providers did not set aside second doses – this strategy would have significantly slowed their ability to immunize as many people as possible, quickly – but rather to introduce as many first doses as possible into the arms. Some providers say they should use all the doses every week to get more.
“We have – I think it’s the practice in most jurisdictions – to treat our doses like doses and vaccinate as many new (people) as possible,” Willis said. “And as the timing of the second dose progresses, that’s when we need to ‘steal’ the first dose from people who are potentially newly vaccinated to make sure we cover the second dose.”
Catherine Ho is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @Cat_Ho
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