Good morning LA
Like Los Angeles. and many other California cities struggle to distribute the coronavirus vaccine, Long Beach – a city of almost 500,000 people – is moving fast.
In late January, Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia said the city’s health workers were almost all vaccinated. Now, the next layer of inoculations are well underway. Garcia told my colleague Sharon McNary what 6,500 education and childcare workers and 2,500 food workers received at least one dose. City police, firefighters, 911 dispatchers, emergency workers and residents over 65 are also eligible.
In Los Angeles City and Countyin comparison, vaccines are currently available only to healthcare professionals and people aged 65 and over.
Garcia attributes the success of his city so far to the fact that Long Beach has its own health department, which avoids bureaucratic blockages. In addition, he said, city officials took a calculated risk from the start.
“We made some decisions not to keep the supply, but to run out as quickly as possible,” he said. “It helped us to move forward very quickly.”
All over the country, the most successful states in obtaining firearms have distribution plans tailored to the specific needs of their population. Alaska has vaccinated the second highest percentage of its population (after West Virginia), and there, medical teams traverse mountainous terrain covered with snow to administer doses “in snow machines, in four-wheel vehicles, in trucks, in airplanes, on asphalt in -20 cold wind … basically anywhere, ”Dr. Ellen Hodges, team leader at Yukon Kuskokwim Health Corporation, told Pew Charitable Trusts.
And West Virginia trusted a lot in pharmacies and independent community clinics, where staff generally know residents personally and trust is high.
Meanwhile, California officials are launching a website they expect it to streamline the vaccination process, and betting on age-based eligibility to help inoculate more people. About that, lawmakers may well seek guidance in Long Beach – because, for Garcia, it is personal. The 727 deaths from coronavirus in the city include his mother and stepfather.
“Since I also lost my parents,” he said, “I certainly feel that every vaccine we release is a potential life-saving opportunity.”
Keep reading to learn more about what’s happening in LA todayand stay safe outside.
What else you need to know today
Before you go … Meet the LA pop art nun
Silkscreen artist Corita Kent was known in the art world as the Nun of Pop Art. Member of the Order of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Los Feliz between 1936 and 1968, her work was a rebellion against religious art. In 1966, she was named the LA Times’ Woman of the Year.
So when Nellie Scott, director of the Corita Art Center, discovered that the small studio in East Hollywood, where Kent did some of his most important work, would be destroyed by a parking lot, she was devastated.
“It was really just a punch in the stomach,” she said. “A plaque just wouldn’t do it justice.”
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