Teachers and staff in an affluent school district in South Bay can skip the line and get a COVID-19 vaccine – pretending to be health professionals – at the request of Bom Samaritano Hospital, according to an email obtained by San José Spotlight.
Teachers are still unable to get vaccinations in Santa Clara County. The county is at the beginning of Phase 1B, but is only vaccinating people aged 75 and over. Education and childcare workers come after health workers and people aged 65 and over.
But teachers at the Los Gatos Union School District don’t have to wait, said superintendent Paul Johnson. They can get the vaccines now – at the behest of the hospital’s top leadership.
The reason teachers skipped the queue, Johnson said in the e-mail, is because they helped raise money in the spring for health workers’ meals at Bom Samaritano Hospital.
“The hospital’s COO says we can access appointments from here and authorized the LGUSD team to subscribe to health buttons,” wrote Johnson in the email to teachers and staff obtained by this news organization. “This is a wonderful gesture from our neighbors Good Sam and I encourage you to take advantage of that in the next few hours.”
Johnson said in the email that the plan was approved by the Good Samaritan’s chief operating officer. He said the hospital would like to “offer vaccines” to the school district because they have not forgotten the “kindness” of the team by raising money for meals from health professionals.
In an interview with the San José Spotlight, Johnson said it is not an exchange – and that the Good Samaritan offer “is not connected” to the money the district has raised.
“My understanding is that Good Sam was released to the next tier, so the teachers didn’t jump in line,” said Johnson. “You would have to talk to Good Sam about offers to other districts outside of Los Gatos.”
Los Gatos does not yet offer face-to-face classes. The district plans to open as soon as cases in Santa Clara County drop to less than 25 cases per 100,000 residents. According to the state’s COVID-19 panel, the county averaged 67 cases per 100,000 this week.
Sarah Sherwood, a spokesman for the Bom Samaritano Hospital, said the hospital chose to offer vaccines to teachers in Los Gatos because the hospital had extra appointments one day.
“We had some hours available to fill and we received 65 Los Gatos teachers at the clinic to receive their vaccinations, following county guidelines,” said Sherwood. “Now, without additional open time slots, we need to continue vaccinating the population over 75 years old.”
Sherwood said the hospital is updating its website to make its vaccination schedule clearer.
“It is our intention to vaccinate as many people as possible,” said Sherwood. “We hope to be able to vaccinate many more in the near future.”
According to the California Department of Public Health, counties may allocate doses of vaccine “on the assumption that immunization will be accepted by some, but not everyone who receives the vaccine, and then continue to offer vaccinations at priority levels. progressive ”.
For example, the department says, if a county has maximized the use of the vaccine to administer individuals in Phase 1a, they should move to Phase 1b Level 1 while continuing to offer vaccines to those in higher priority groups.
“We are very grateful that Good Sam reached our district and offered to help our LGUSD team (teachers and support staff) get vaccinated,” said Johnson. “Teachers are essential workers, and as we transition back to face-to-face education, we are grateful that they can have access to vaccines to protect students and the community.”
Teachers will not be forced to be vaccinated, Johnson added, and it is a personal choice. He said the district only received “guidance from Good Sam on how to navigate its application system.”
The state last week started vaccinating residents 65 and older, but health professionals in Santa Clara County, including Kaiser, are vaccinating only people 75 and older due to a lack of vaccine.
Due to a shortage of vaccines, the Good Samaritan reported to the county that it is vaccinating only qualified health professionals in the first phase of the state’s COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan.
Santa Clara County is receiving about 30,000 vaccines a week from the state and federal government. County supervisors said it was not enough and agreed to send a letter to state health officials demanding more doses.
According to the Santa Clara County vaccine panel, until January 22, the Bom Samaritano Hospital received 6,585 first and second doses of the vaccine, and administered 3,674 doses.
The Santa Clara County Board of Education did not respond to a request for comment.
Public health officials in Santa Clara County say they are investigating the matter after an investigation by this news agency.
Contact Madelyn Reese at [email protected] and follow her @MadelynGReese