The only private healthcare provider in Santa Clara County to vaccinate people under 74 has changed course.
After vaccinating people aged 65 and over for several days, Kaiser Permanente changed its age eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine back to patients aged 75 and over – despite California allowing people aged 65 and over to be vaccinated. The move puts Kaiser in line with the county’s guidance to vaccinate people 75 and older due to a lack of vaccine supplies.
“This is related to the supply of vaccines and in line with the California Department of Public Health Guidelines,” Kaiser officials said in a statement to San José Spotlight.
The move also aligns Kaiser with all other county health workers who have vaccinated people 75 and older. Kaiser was the only health care provider in the county to have different criteria.
“It has been extraordinarily challenging at the local level to manage expectations when the direction around us is changing,” said Dr. Sara Cody, Santa Clara County public health officer, at a county health and hospital committee meeting in January 19th.
Santa Clara County hospitals this week received just under 30,000 vaccines from the state, Cody said. Officials warned that the lack of vaccines makes it difficult to inoculate all qualified health workers, let alone elderly residents. County supervisors are writing a letter to the state asking it to provide more doses.
Kaiser tried to follow state guidelines – but he didn’t have enough doses to continue.
“With the expansion at the state level, Kaiser fell in line, but it is clear that our local Kaiser did not have the vaccine to be able to vaccinate that population and created a lot of frustration,” said Cody.
Cody and other health officials emphasized that the continued supply of vaccines from the state and federal governments is unpredictable and unreliable. The state provides vaccines for the county and some private health care providers, such as the Kaiser an Palo Alto Medical Foundation, while the federal government sends vaccines directly to CVS and Walgreens for long-term and veteran care programs.
“At the moment, we have what appear to be relatively consistent criteria between Sutter (Health), Kaiser and our county operation,” said supervisor Joe Simitian. “But is there no guarantee that it will be the case in a week or two weeks from now?”
The supply of the vaccine confirmed by Cody is extraordinarily limited and varies by provider.
Earlier this month, Santa Clara County revealed that it administered only less than half of the vaccines assigned to it.
Santa Clara County launched a panel this week, with real-time numbers of how many vaccines were delivered and administered at each hospital, along with how many vaccine appointments are scheduled in the next seven days.
According to the panel, Kaiser has 5,400 vaccination appointments scheduled until next Wednesday.
Contact Madelyn Reese at [email protected] and follow her @MadelynGReese