California is opening COVID-19 vaccines to all residents aged 65 and over – an announcement that comes amid slower-than-expected vaccination implementation and growing frustration among the elderly most vulnerable to the virus.
State health officials had previously ordered California to focus on vaccinating health workers and nursing home residents, with elderly people aged 75 and over and a few essential workers to follow. But people over 65 make up the majority of hospitalizations and almost three-quarters of COVID-19 deaths.
Next week, the state will launch a text and e-mail notification system so that Californians can track when they are eligible to apply for the injection, according to the state’s public health department.
The announcement came a day after US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said the federal government would not reserve more doses for the second injection – both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require two doses.
Production has reached a point where there is now enough to start releasing more doses to states as they become available, said Azar. He instructed states to open vaccination for people aged 65 and over and for people under 65 with a pre-existing illness, noting that many states were being “too prescriptive” and were not delivering vaccines quickly enough.
California’s new guidelines do not include people under 65 with pre-existing illnesses. State health officials have yet to explain why.
“Part of the process that we established in California – very careful, trying to focus on risk, exposure and equity – has led to some delays in the distribution of vaccines in our communities.”
– Dr. Mark Ghaly, Secretary for Health and Human Services
As of Tuesday, California had administered just over 816,600 doses – about 30% of the doses it has, according to the state’s public health department. A federal tracker shows that most states are vaccinating people at a faster rate than in California.
Last week, Governor Gavin Newsom set a goal to administer 1 million additional vaccines by this weekend, enlisting four mass vaccination sites: Disneyland Resort in Anaheim, Dodgers Stadium in Los Angeles, Petco Park in San Diego and Cal Expo in Sacramento.
The new guidance takes the state out of its meticulously designed vaccine system, but more vaccine distribution is good news for the state, said Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s secretary of health, in a press call on Tuesday.
“Having more vaccines, inviting more to be vaccinated, will allow California to advance more and more rapidly in our population and take this vaccine out of our freezers and put it in the population to get that protection,” said Ghaly.
Carly and André Rivers, Berkeley residents. Carly received her COVID-19 vaccine last week, but Andre is still waiting for hers. Photo courtesy of Andre Rivers
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André Rivers, meanwhile, is looking forward to receiving his COVID-19 vaccine. The 74-year-old asked her primary care physician and her rheumatologist when she would be able to get one. None of them was able to give an answer.
His wife, Carly Rivers, who has Alzheimer’s, got hers last week through the Berkeley PACE Center, part of a state program that helps seniors coordinate care so they can live in their own home instead of a specialist ward.
“Now that Carly has it, it makes sense that I should have it; we do everything together, ”said Rivers. “When I go out, she goes with me.”
Instead, Rivers, like many other seniors in California who have spent the past 10 months isolated from friends and family, has been patiently waiting for their turn. Frustration and expectation rising.
COVID-19 has caused the greatest damage to older adults. At the beginning of the pandemic, the elderly were advised to take shelter there because of their vulnerability, even before the entire state went into blockade. In California, nearly 75% of all COVID-19 deaths are people aged 65 and over.
Shortly after vaccines started arriving in California, counties reported that they were inundated with calls from older residents looking for information.
“If you try to be very micromanaged, very adapted, very focused, you let the perfect be the enemy of the good in a mass vaccination campaign like this.”
– Alex Azar, Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services
From day one, California promised to distribute vaccines fairly, carefully targeting people based on risk. But these equity efforts made distribution difficult.
“Part of the process that we established in California – very careful, trying to focus on risk, exposure and equity – has led to some delays in the distribution of vaccines in our communities,” said Ghaly.
Secretary Azar said that states are being limited by the original guidance from the Disease Control Center’s immunization advisory committee, which recommended that states target health workers and nursing homes first.
“Some governors overreacted and took them too prescriptively and this is a logistical issue, it is an operational issue,” he said. “If you try to be very micromanaged, very adapted, very focused, you let the perfect be the enemy of the good in a mass vaccination campaign like this.”
Some counties did not wait for state instructions. After the federal announcement, Orange County announced on Tuesday that it would begin offering vaccines to residents 65 and older.
Orange County public health officer Dr. Clayton Chau said he made the decision after reviewing hospital and mortality data. According to the municipality’s conclusions, 72% of patients in intensive care units are 60 years or older.
“My goal is to reduce hospitalizations and deaths as quickly as possible, and we must prioritize our distribution of vaccines to protect the most vulnerable in our community,” Chau said in a statement.
Orange County asked residents not to come to their distribution locations without an appointment, noting that the locations were already overloaded.
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