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California is pushing gunshots at a much faster rate than just a month ago – approaching the national average, with wishes to accelerate even more – but the pace of COVID-19 vaccinations varies widely from county to county in the Golden State.
Analysis of state data from the Southern California News Group found that small counties with fewer people and less complicated logistics lead the way in vaccinating their residents: Little Mono, with 14,526 residents, ranked No.1, managing to vaccinate one in three inhabitants. . At its heels was the tiny Alpine, with a population of 1,209, which received gunfire on 27% of its inhabitants.
But the rate of inoculation is not just a function of size. Some large counties seem better than others at getting the job done:
- San Diego is 9th out of 58 counties in California. Even though it has the second highest population in the state, with 3.3 million people, it managed to vaccinate 15.2% of them.
- Orange – almost identical in population to San Diego, with 3.2 million inhabitants – vaccinated 12.9% of its population, taking 21st place.
- Massive Los Angeles, with 10 million people, vaccinated 12.3%, arriving in 23rd place.
- Riverside, with 2.5 million people, was No. 39, with 9.4% vaccinated.
- San Bernardino, with a population of 2.1 million, was No. 41, with 9.2% vaccinated.
- In last place, at No.58, was Kings County, with only 5% vaccinated
The different rates reflect complicated variables, as well as the state’s still fragile data collection system, officials said. The number of people belonging to priority groups within a county’s borders determines the amount of vaccine they receive. There is also the ease – or difficulty – of scheduling appointments, the availability of transport to vaccination sites, the willingness of people to accept vaccines and, most importantly, the scarcity of the vaccine itself, because demand far exceeds supply.
“The problem of vaccinations is a problem of supply available throughout the country,” Governor Gavin Newsom said Wednesday. “The problem of scarcity is real.”
Newsom has acknowledged that the state has fallen behind, especially on efforts to ensure that densely populated communities of color and others hardest hit by the coronavirus are not overlooked.
“We are not meeting our goals of ensuring that we are really fair in the distribution of this vaccine,” Newsom said during a briefing in the Central Valley, where preparations are underway for the eventual distribution of the vaccine to people. agricultural workers.
“Our commitment to fairness is not rhetorical. It’s real, ”Newsom said, adding that the deployment fairness measures are expected later this week and will show the state is indeed lagging behind.
He also said that several testing sites run by state partner OptumServe are being converted into vaccination clinics across California – with the goal of reaching residents of hard-hit neighborhoods. This, in tandem with the new Alameda Stadium mass vaccination sites in Oakland and Los Angeles State, which join the spectrum of community sites, will open up vaccine distribution to the most vulnerable, Newsom said.
But like most government officials’ vaccination promises, all of this came with a caveat: get enough vaccines first.
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti announced on Wednesday that the vaccination center at Dodger Stadium would close Friday and Saturday as he expects to run out of vaccines.
A better measure?
In Riverside County, spokeswoman Brooke Federico said the best measure of the effectiveness of the distribution was the amount of vaccine received in people’s arms.
Statewide, just under 66% of vaccines delivered have entered the guns, according to state data. And although county-by-county data is not yet available from the state, counties in Southern California report doing much better than the state average.
Riverside County administered 86% of the doses it received, Federico said. San Bernardino and Orange counties say they both administered 89.5%; Los Angeles is at 82%.
Officials have warned that the state’s data collection has many gaps, and vaccination may well be underreported. Orange County, for example, tracks the zip codes of people vaccinated, but when it uploads data to the state’s system, the zip codes are removed, supervisor Lisa Bartlett said.
“State data needs to be cleaned, cleaned up,” Bartlett said, fearing that such errors could impact the amount of vaccine allocated in the future.
Vaccine calculations
Counties don’t get vaccine supplies based on a simple, total population, Federico said.
Instead, allocations are based on the number of people belonging to priority groups in each county. This means that even counties with identical total populations would receive different amounts of vaccine depending on how many people over 65 they have, how many healthcare workers they have, how many nursing home residents. .
To illustrate: San Diego County has a skilled health care and nursing facility workforce of 352,174, while Riverside County’s workforce in this category is 113,614 San Diego got 13.3% of the state’s early vaccine supply, while Riverside got 4.3%.
The calculations will change as the vaccine becomes more widely available. Now that people 65 and over are eligible, Riverside County has 387,429 people in this priority group and will get a much closer allowance than San Diego: 6.19% as of Feb. 16, Federico said. . San Diego County, with 496,742 eligible, will get 7.94%.
Orange County has more people over 65 than San Diego and will also benefit from more supplies, said Clayton Chau, director of the Orange County Health Care Agency.
To complicate comparisons, said San Bernardino County spokesman David Wert, it is that each county also vaccinates large numbers of residents of other counties. “This is because, besides seniors, the only eligible sectors are employment-based, and a significant number of healthcare, emergency and education workers get vaccinated where they work, not where they live, and they are often different counties, ”he said. .
Obviously, the numbers are a work in progress and will be more meaningful once vaccinations are available to the general population for a while, Wert said.
Vaccine distribution funnel
Another detail that eludes most people is that counties do not provide the bulk of vaccinations.
Large independent health systems have received around 70 to 80 percent of the vaccine supply and are donating the vaccines directly, said Andrew Do, chairman of the Orange County Supervisory Board. Frustrated people – who have said it is not their turn for their health care providers yet – are then turning to the county to ask for vaccines, he said.
Moderna and Pfizer are ramping up production, and Johnson & Johnson’s vaccine candidate is expected to be presented to the Food and Drug Administration for emergency use clearance on February 26. Rapid approval is expected, and the company has pledged to have 100 million doses by June.
Things are accelerating rapidly. A month ago, California followed the country, vaccinating just 1,981 per 100,000 inhabitants. The pace has accelerated considerably, with nearly 4.8 million doses administered, or 12,109 per 100,000 inhabitants. That’s very close to the national average of 12,810, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and OurWorldInData in London.
“I hope I wake up in a month and have lots of shots – and I don’t get arrows on my back anymore,” Chau said. “I have no doubts that we have the capacity, the infrastructure, to help us meet the need.”
Editor Ryan Carter contributed to this report.
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