Officially, there is no waiting list for COVID-19 vaccinations in Los Angeles County.
But some clinics have doses that are about to expire that are left over later in the day or during a lull in the early afternoon, and the news spread quickly about this potential back door for access to the vaccine. Some who frequent the locals spend hours waiting in hopes of having a chance.
The Kedren Community Health Center in South Los Angeles and the Balboa Sports Complex in Encino have been at the center of the rumor in recent days, drawing large crowds that begin to gather before dawn. Some people arrive from neighborhoods far from vaccination sites.
These crowds included elderly people who, despite being eligible to receive vaccines, were unable to make an appointment. But many of the others camped in the queue do not qualify for doses in the state’s gradual distribution system.
Some expressed ethical qualms about potentially being vaccinated before members of high priority groups. They didn’t want to take a dose from someone else, they said, but they heard that the vaccine would be thrown away.
“I think there are people who are much more deserving than we are, and we just found out,” said Brianna Bane, 23, who works in social media, on Thursday afternoon. She was called out of the waiting line at Kedren Health and to the vaccination stand a few minutes later.
Los Angeles County Department of Public Health officials said in a statement on Friday that while they do not have waiting lines, some people receive doses that would otherwise be missed.
The department said it “does not advise residents to attend vaccination sites in the hope of receiving a remaining vaccine later in the day.”
County health officials estimated that the number of people vaccinated through queues daily is less than 20 or 30.
But Dr. Jerry P. Abraham, who runs the vaccine operations at Kedren Health, said 40 of the more than 800 doses of vaccine administered on the spot on Thursday were for non-health workers under the age of 65. The nonprofit health system serves as a local vaccine for the county’s distribution point.
Sonny Tran, the leader of clinical operations at the site, said that 20% to 30% of people with scheduled appointments did not attend. The clinic is administering the Modern vaccine, which expires six hours after a bottle is punctured, according to the guidelines of the Center for Disease Control and Prevention. Abraham said Kedren Health did not attend more than usual on Thursday, because the appointments were scheduled using the new CalVax software.
Across the county, the non-attendance rate has been less than 10%; this figure is taken into account when consultations are scheduled, health officials said.
The supply of the COVID-19 vaccine is extremely limited in the county and only a small number of consultations are available to frontline health professionals and residents aged 65 and over. Many frustrated seniors are vying for the few places available.
Abraham said health professionals and the elderly remain the priority for vaccines in his clinic.
“But there are times when we don’t have anyone here,” he said. “And there are times when your stock has to be put in someone’s arm or discarded, and we refuse to waste a dose.
“We will not allow documentation or technology to prevent us from vaccinating,” said Abraham, adding that those in the clinic are doing “everything in our power to ensure that our phases and levels are respected and prioritized.”
The clinic is located in a southern part of Los Angeles with more than 97% Latinos and Blacks, with an average income of $ 39,612. But many people who waited long hours on Thursdays and Fridays outside the clinic were white and came from outside the neighborhood.
Early Friday morning, a woman in an Audi with a “Brentwood School” license plate stopped to honk at people she knew as she circled for a parking space. Some people set up camping chairs, typed on laptops and read newspapers and iPads while they waited. A security guard occasionally walked around the block on Friday morning, taking health workers and those over 65 from the general queue to the front.
Most “vaccine hunters”, as one woman jokingly called her group, said they lived in the Westside or in the Valley, although others came from downtown, Los Feliz and Echo Park, and some from Topanga and Malibu. Everyone had heard of the word of mouth opportunity on their social and professional networks.
“The moral issue of getting it before someone else has been overcome by the fact that doses are being wasted,” said Jasmine, a 28-year-old designer from Echo Park who asked that her surname not be released, said on Friday. morning.
As she spoke, the young man who waited a little ahead of her stuck a plastic fork in what appeared to be a take-out breakfast fry. His meal had arrived a few minutes earlier through the delivery driver.
Several people commented on how the line’s demographics differed from those in the neighborhood and expressed discomfort about it.
“I feel a little strange. … I wish it was something that more members of this community knew about, “Caitlin, a 57-year-old actress from Valley, said on Friday when looking at the” variety of expensive cars in the parking lot “. Caitlin, who asked that his surname not be revealed, had been waiting with his college-age son since 4:45 in the morning.
At the Balboa Sports Complex, in Encino, on Friday, a line of elderly and health workers snaked around a red-brick building where vaccinators administered vaccines to people with consultations. But just beyond that – beside the park’s tennis courts and baseball fields – a separate line was formed: vaccine aspirants.
Young people, families and even the elderly were parked on deckchairs and blankets, waiting to see if there would be extra photos available to them at the end of the day. Rumors abounded, including an often repeated anecdote about 200 people who were lucky enough to take the remaining photos on an afternoon last week.
“It’s like a phone game,” said William Crouse, 32, who was working on a puzzle with his friend Teddy Jones, 38, while they waited.
Behind them, a paper sign taped to a pole said that the “unofficial line” would give priority to health professionals and people over 65 before moving on to others. Crouse and Jones said they first heard about the possible distribution of leftover doses via an Instagram post.
The current pace of vaccine implantation in LA County means that it may take more than six months before eligibility is opened for Crouse’s age group, he said, so he figured he would try his luck in Balboa.
“If the goal is to vaccinate as many people as possible, why not?” he said. “I am happy to play a role in that goal.”
Not everyone was so young or so hopeful.
Josefa Celada, 71, joined the waiting list at the Complexo Esportivo Balboa at 9am on Friday, after trying and not getting an online meeting for the elderly. The next opportunity she managed to find was in March, she said, but she urgently needs the vaccine to work. Nanny of three children, her boss told her not to go back to work before being vaccinated.
“I need this,” she said. “I do not go out; I did nothing. I’m so afraid. “
Officials working on the lines at the Balboa Sports Complex said senior citizens and health professionals would be removed from the waiting group first at the end of the day, but no one could give any guarantees.
Selda Hollander, 86, joined the Balboa waiting line after failing to contact anyone via the telephone dialing system.
She was not prepared for the long wait, however, and did not bring a chair. Instead, she was sitting on the grass, protecting herself from the cold.
“I can’t figure out if it’s worth it,” she said, wincing slightly. “I’m waiting for the vaccine, but I can get sick because of the weather.”
Meanwhile, Natasha Moini and Siena Deck, both 23, came ready. Parked on folding chairs, with sweaters and towels covering their legs, they ate snacks and watched an episode of “How to Get Away with Murder” on an Apple laptop.
It was Moini’s mother who heard about a friend’s Balboa standby line. She managed to secure a shot last week.
“You never really know, so we thought, why not come?” Said Moini. “I mean, what else are we doing?”
Both Moini and Deck, who arrived at 10:30 am, said they would come back a few more times if they could not get vaccinated on Friday.
“I will feel better if I succeed,” said Moini.