Avenidas Without Walls

Dear Constituent,

As COVID-19 vaccination efforts evolve, and many constituents have questions, I want to ensure that you have access to the best resources and the most up-to-date information available.

The goal of this email is two-fold: 1) to provide you with currently relevant information; and 2) to provide you with resources you can use to stay up-to-date as the situation changes. Below you will find links to the brand-new websites that health care providers have established over the last few days for patients to sign-up for the vaccine, as well as details on the projected timeline for the next phase of vaccinations.

In this email you will also learn how to avoid vaccine scams, statewide and local efforts to accelerate vaccine distribution, and a guide for making your vaccine plan.

Like many of you, I am frustrated with the unacceptably slow pace of the vaccine roll out. Ensuring that every Californian is vaccinated as quickly as possible is the most important issue facing the state today. Earlier this week I asked Governor Newsom to implement new protocols aimed at creating a more effective and efficient roll out of COVID-19 vaccines, including:

Providing counties with more reliable and regular updates about the quantity of vaccines they will receive, so our counties can have more certainty and better prepare for a larger roll out, including staffing;
Expanding authorization for who can administer the vaccines to include nursing students, retired medical professionals, and firefighters; and
Expanding the use of the National Guard in delivering vaccines across California, and charge them with medical training to administer vaccines.

Is the Vaccine Safe?

Fear and misinformation about the safety and efficacy of the vaccine is a significant barrier to vaccinating large portions of our population. To try to get ahead of this, I organized a Vaccine Town Hall with Dr. Bonnie Maldonado from Stanford University in mid-December, just as the vaccine was being made available. Hundreds of constituents tuned in to hear from Dr. Maldonado, a renowned vaccine expert and member of the Governor’s Vaccine Scientific Safety Review Workgroup. If you missed the town hall, you can view it here.

Make a Plan to get Vaccinated

There are steps you can take to ensure you are vaccinated as soon as possible.

The first step in making your plan to get vaccinated is to refer to your health system’s vaccine website. The links to the major health systems’ vaccine pages are included below.

While some people will be vaccinated at mass community vaccination sites (please refer to my website regularly for information on these sites as they come online), many people will receive the vaccine through your primary care provider. Your medical provider will release information about their specific system of vaccine distribution and when you and your family members will be eligible to receive a vaccine.

All large health systems including Kaiser, Stanford Healthcare, Palo Alto Medical Foundation (Sutter Health), county run hospitals and clinics, and many smaller community clinics will be allocated vaccines directly to vaccinate their patients as they become eligible.

The state and counties are working with the large pharmacy chains so that they may eventually offer COVID-19 vaccination to eligible members of the public. The state is also working with counties to establish mass vaccination sites and a statewide online vaccine registry where people can sign-up to be notified when it is their turn to receive the vaccine. Keep an eye out for these updates in the coming weeks.

Who is Currently Eligible to be Vaccinated?

In addition to health care personnel and long-term care facility residents, health care systems statewide are now authorized to vaccinate individuals age 65 and older.

However, just because they are authorized to does not mean each provider is offering vaccines to this expanded group. Each provider decides which categories of patients they have the capacity to vaccinate at any given time, in accordance with the state’s priority list. These decisions are generally based on their current supply of vaccine and the number of patients they have the capacity to vaccinate each day.

Individuals who are eligible to be vaccinated should contact their healthcare provider for more information or to make an appointment.

Vaccine Priority List

Phase 1A:

Healthcare workers
Long-term care residents

Phase 1B Tier One:

Individuals 65 and older (CDPH recommends prioritizing and targeting outreach to persons 75 years or older due to increased risk of mortality and other severe disease)
Those at risk of exposure at work in the following sectors: education, childcare, emergency services, and food and agriculture

Phase 1B Tier Two:

Those at risk of exposure at work in the following sectors: transportation and logistics; industrial, commercial, residential, and sheltering facilities and services; critical manufacturing
Congregate settings with outbreak risk: incarcerated and homeless

Phase 1C:

Individuals 50-64 years of age
People 16-49 years of age and have an underlying health condition or disability which increases their risk of severe COVID-19
Those at risk of exposure at work in the following sectors:
- Water and wastewater
- Defense
- Energy
- Chemical and hazardous materials
- Communications and IT
- Financial services
- Government operations / community-based essential functions

After focused and appropriate efforts to reach the prioritized groups, vaccine providers may offer doses to people in lower priority groups when demand subsides in the current groups or doses are about to expire according to labeling instructions.

Distribution Updates

The state has taken additional steps in the last week to accelerate the vaccine distribution process and improve vaccine-related communication, including:

Developing a new system to let people know if they are eligible to receive a vaccine, and if not yet eligible, to register for a notification via email or text when they are eligible. That system is expected to launch this week.
Working with counties, cities and other organizations to run mass vaccination events. This will include a way for eligible members of the public to schedule their vaccination appointments at those events. The Santa Clara County Fairgrounds and the San Mateo County Event Center have already established these sites and are working to expand capacity.
Increasing the number of people who can provide vaccinations by more than 100,000 health care professionals, including dentists and pharmacists.

I was pleased to see that the Governor included $372 million in his proposed Budget to speed up administration of vaccines across all of California’s 58 counties.

Avoiding Scams

Another important thing to keep in mind as you plan to get vaccinated is avoiding vaccine scams. There are currently scammers contacting people, especially seniors, about the COVID-19 vaccine with the intent to obtain personal data. Reputable medical providers will not ask for personal information like credit cards or social security numbers. If you are contacted by someone purporting to be your doctor or medical provider and you are unsure if they can be trusted, call or email your medical provider directly.

Timeline

About 3 million to 4 million people in Phases 1A and 1B are expected to be vaccinated by the end of the month. Another 6 million people in Phase 1B and Phase 1C are expected to be vaccinated in February and March.

As of January 16th, a total of 1,303,518 vaccine doses have been administered statewide, and a total of 3,226,775 vaccine doses have been shipped to local health departments and health care systems. It is my expectation that as new vaccine protocol changes become more established in the coming weeks, the speed of vaccine distribution will increase significantly.

One of the biggest concerns I am hearing from counties and healthcare providers is that they need more doses of the vaccine. When the Trump administration announced a few days ago that they would release the reserve stockpile of vaccines, California anticipated receiving large shipments in the coming days. Unfortunately, we have recently learned that there was no reserve stockpile to begin with, and that our shipments would remain about the same.

I will continue to do everything within my power as a Legislator to accelerate this process.