Good Morning.
Well, the time that many of us have been waiting for has arrived: Californians aged 50 and over will be eligible to be vaccinated from April 1 and residents over 16 will be eligible from April 15, state officials announced Thursday. fair, in an effort to reflect the increased supply of doses from the federal government.
“This is possible thanks to the leadership of the Biden-Harris government and the countless public health officials across the state who have endeavored to bring vaccines to arms,” said Governor Gavin Newsom in a statement.
Newsom said at a news conference that the state, effective immediately, would also allow health professionals to use their discretion to vaccinate the families of those who can be vaccinated.
[Track the vaccine rollout state by state.]
According to current estimates, state officials expect California to get 2.5 million doses a week in the first part of April – a figure that will increase to more than three million in the second half.
Currently, the state receives about 1.8 million doses per week. So far, about 15.7 million doses of vaccine have been administered in California, according to the New York Times tracker, far more than any other state. But on a per capita basis, it falls somewhere in the middle of the states.
According to The Times vaccine tracker, an average of about 2.5 million doses per day are being administered across the country.
The announcement follows weeks of intense pressure on Newsom to speed up the launch of the vaccine in the state, amid an effort to move it out of place. Experts said that their ability to avoid this campaign depends on vaccinating millions of residents and lifting the remaining restrictions, so that as soon as residents are called to vote on a likely electoral recall later this year, the state will be closer to the normal.
Newsom has repeatedly blamed an unpredictable and limited offer for what has been criticized as a messy and chaotic process that has left many poorer black communities behind.
Earlier this month, in response to this criticism, state officials abruptly announced that 40% of vaccine doses would be targeted at communities designated as vulnerable according to a state index. The state also released an accelerated reopening plan that was linked to these targeted vaccines.
[Read more about the state’s reopening process.]
But this change frustrated local officials in the Bay Area, where almost none of these prioritized communities were located.
Dr. Jeffrey V. Smith, Santa Clara County executive, recently described the program as “a false plan of action.”
Newsom’s decision to essentially outsource the allocation of doses to counties and healthcare providers to an insurer, Blue Shield of California, has also been criticized by several local officials, who said it adds an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy to the process.
On Thursday, alongside the governor at a news conference, Mayor Vicente Sarmiento de Santa Ana, Orange County seat and home to many low-income Latinos, praised the action plan.
“We are forever grateful,” he said, adding that it is a mistake to think that Orange County is homogeneous, white and rich.
[President Biden said that 200 million vaccines in 100 days is the new goal.]
Mr. Newsom also defended his plan.
“We needed to do more and better,” he said at a news conference. “We needed to do justice to our North Star, which is equality.”
Some experts feared that the move would only flood overburdened vaccine delivery systems, with more people desperately trying to apply for vaccines.
“I foresee continued frustration as more people become eligible, but the supply is not available to meet demand,” Dr. Christopher Longhurst, chief information officer at UC San Diego Health, told me via email.
The state’s MyTurn online appointment system has been largely dismissed as another obstacle for healthcare providers who already have effective means of reaching patients.
Still, Andrew Noymer, professor of population health and disease prevention at the University of California, Irvine, told me the announcement was good news.
“I think, given the state of the administration, they wouldn’t be doing it if they didn’t have the doses,” he said. “I think they are cautious about exaggerating promises.”
Mr Noymer said that while it is commendable “to try to remedy centuries of inequalities that manifest in the health field”, it was somewhat counterproductive from an epidemiological point of view to focus so much on who is eligible and when.
“Nobody needs to feel like they’re cutting the line,” he said. “If there is no line to cut, this is better for everyone.”
Still, Mrs. Walter will probably be best remembered for her particular genius for portraying emotionally restrained matriarchs, and especially Lucille Bluth of Newport Beach.
As my colleague James Poniewozik wrote, this genius was immortalized in the form of dozens of GIFs – and we are lucky to have them: “Every sharp, fulminating and devastating image of Lucille that Walter left us came from an actor who knew his character and his craft so well that she could speak an entire reality in two seconds. “
So if you’ve ever sent someone a Lucille meme or asked how much a banana can cost, serve yourself a martini this weekend for an icon.
California Today airs at 6:30 am Pacific time. Tell us what you want to see: [email protected]. Did you forward this email? Sign up for California Today here and read all online editions here.
Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, graduated from UC Berkeley and has done reporting across the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles – but she always wants to see more. Follow here or Twitter.
California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from UC Berkeley.