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“If we had more supplies, we could actually get three to four times as many vaccines a day, immediately,” Dr Geoffrey Leung of Riverside University Health System told the oversight board Tuesday morning.
While it’s not surprising that demand for the coronavirus vaccine far exceeds supply, what shocked supervisors was Riverside County was receiving fewer doses per capita than neighboring counties.
“I am actually absolutely stunned.
On a per capita basis, we believed that fair amounts were going to our various counties. ”
Supervisor Jeff Hewitt
San Diego County and Santa Clara County have received more vaccines per capita than Riverside County, said Kim Saruwatari, director of public health for Riverside County.
Both were “about 180 vaccines per 1,000 people,” while Riverside County received 100 vaccines per 1,000 people.
The reason? According to Saruwatari, the California Department of Public Health used an allocation methodology that includes examining the total population of healthcare workers. San Diego County has about 2.5 times more healthcare workers than Riverside County.
“I would love to see their data which shows any healthcare worker is anywhere near danger compared to an older person.” Hewitt said.
“This pandemic from day one aimed to flatten the curve, but also to isolate ourselves enough so as not to kill our grandparents. Now it all suddenly became a matter of first responders and medical professionals, as they kind of took it to the next level. If indeed their life, hospitalization rate and death rate are equal, I have no problem with that. But we have seen the numbers and I would like to see their justification for doing this ”
“Obviously AARP doesn’t have the clout that a lot of these unions have in Sacramento, for nurses and doctors and stuff like that. I am absolutely appalled.
SUPERVISOR JEFF HEWITT
“I’m a little skeptical of the state’s explanation of the dose ratio and richer counties that have more medical professionals to justify why poorer counties shouldn’t have so many doses available for their residents. Supervisor Kevin Jeffries said.
“It just smacks of typical California bureaucrats favoring some counties over others, but I can’t prove it, so I’ll let the data speak for itself.”
Supervisor Kevin Jeffries
Jeffries noted that Los Angeles County was not getting more doses per capita than Riverside County, but was still concerned about the differences. “It smells bad that if you’re rich and you have … more healthcare workers, you get more doses, and the rest of you, good luck.”
“This has been a recurring problem for years,” said Supervisor V. Manuel Perez, “The Inland Empire, County of Riverside and San Bernardino County have unfortunately still not received their fair share since the 1991 realignment. right, and we continue with these struggles today.
Perez wished the state had provided the award criteria earlier in the process. “We thought it was population based.”
“I obviously appreciate that our healthcare workers can get the vaccine, and our frontline workers who are in public safety to be able to receive their vaccines,” Perez said, but referred to studies from other industries that are heavily affected, including agricultural workers, restaurant workers, and those in grocery stores and warehouses.
Saruwatari said the state is in the process of making the transition to include people aged 65 and over in the estimates, “so that will be done gradually, we will see this increase in the allowance.”
“We have a large senior population living in Riverside County, particularly in my district,” Perez noted.
Riverside County spokeswoman Brooke Federico explained the allowances in a statement:
“Vaccine allocations are based on priority population estimates for each county. Initially, this included health workers who work in the county and residents of skilled nursing facilities / long-term care facilities (SNF / LTCF ) – which for Riverside County was a total population of 113,614 for the allocation denominator. Using that number as the denominator, we received 4.3% of the total allocated vaccines in California. By comparison, San Diego County had a health and SNF / LTC workforce of 352,174 people and received 13.3% of the total vaccine allocated in California.
Three weeks ago, the CRPD also started including over 65 populations in the denominator, and from today’s first dose allocations, as entities have so far received enough vaccine to cover their Phase 1A populations, these estimates will be phased out of the denominator. Half of the denominator for Phase 1A will be removed for the February 9 allocation and the remaining half will be removed for the February 16 allocation, so the population 65 and over will be the base of the denominator.
For Riverside County, our population of 65+ is 387,429 and we will be receiving 6.19% of the total California vaccine allocation starting with our February 16 allocation. For comparison, San Diego County has 496,742 people aged 65 and over and will receive 7.94% of the total vaccine allocation as of February 16. “
Get a vaccine
The portal to make an appointment for vaccination is accessible via
www.rivcoph.org/COVID-19-Vaccine. Anyone who needs help can also call the county’s 211 helpline. You can also send an email to [email protected]. County health officials say they believe they have sufficient staff to respond to all messages.
How to get tested
Remember that you can get tested even if you don’t have symptoms. Testing is available to all county residents.
You can now take a free test at many Rite-Aids in the region. Click here for a complete list of stores and to schedule your appointment.
Click here to find the test site closest to you
Find County Testing Sites
Stay up to date with the latest local coronavirus news, including reopens and closures, new case data, live press conferences and other updates at KESQ.com/Coronavirus or download the News app Channel 3 on the Apple Store and Google Play.
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