Vaccines In San Diego: The Whys And Hows

Speaker 1: 00:00 To find out exactly where we are in the process of vaccinating San Diego counties, 3 million residents, KPBS health reporter, Taryn mento talked extensively on Monday with the County health and human services agency, director, Nick mashy, own and public health officer Dr. Wilma Wooten. The conversation covered the availability of vaccines. The current difficulty in scheduling a vaccine appointment and the issue of equitable distribution of the vaccine. Here's some of that interview Speaker 2: 00:30 Using every dose of vaccine is crucial and you're scheduling appointments to make sure nothing is wasted, but there are inevitably some doses left at the end of the day. And people on social media have told me and others have written into us that people who may not fit the current tier of eligibility are waiting around vaccination sites. How are you deciding who gets extra doses at the end of the day? So we've shared a talk with like prisons that are secret station, having our points of dispensing a location and our super staging patients having a contingency plan because those things happen. I mean, on two occasions I've been called and informed that while the lines like today, can we provide that to nation, to another group? And very early on with the synchronization at Petco park, we decided that we would focus on the homeless population or, uh, it was, um, the holiday Martin Luther King weekend. Speaker 2: 01:32 Uh, we advanced to vaccinating everyone 65 years of age and older, as opposed to just 75 and older. So that's the way we'd handle that in our pod. Also have a plan of who can they call to get there right away to get vaccinated so that no vaccination or no vaccine dose is lost. Is there a wait list because people have asked me, how do they get on it? There is no specific wait lists, grab the stories to that where people are waiting around. But again, if they fit the criteria, even though they don't have an appointment, I think that's okay because they are 65 years of age and older. They may not have an appointment. They know that at the end of the day, uh, vaccines might be available. It's not a lottery again, we're following our own guidance as best we can. We know, for example, the state just opened up right. Speaker 2: 02:29 Tier two of phase one B. And what does that include? Includes emergency response law enforcement, for example, where teachers grocery, I think those types of essential functions and some of the contingency plans and superstitions have been, uh, if they someday they end up with no supplies left. I know that in, uh, Chula Vista, for instance, their contingency was if there wasn't anyone without appointment 65 and older, uh, law enforcement, that law enforcement is going to next. So, so I think that was a really good approach. And they're trying to take that strategy, uh, also at the North County. Uh Superstation I know they've done some law enforcement also down at Petco, obviously with father Joe's and the homeless. That's a clear area there, uh, to help folks. But, uh, we, we discouraged the public, you know, to just go there and in lines because every one of those superstations and County pods has a contingency to use a hundred percent of the vaccine. And so they don't need, you know, you know, people waiting for it. Instead we asked for patients and when it's their turn, we promise we'll get them in. Speaker 3: 03:37 You're talking about people who are currently eligible. We have received a lot of complaints that scheduling is difficult. Either appointments are limited or eligible. Seniors have a tough time with the technical side. You know, you've made two, one, one available to those over 75, but that hasn't solved the problem. So how are you addressing, Speaker 2: 03:55 Thank you. That's a great question. And several ways, um, one, you know, when you think about, um, the population we started with it wasn't for example, um, population that was more tech savvy, or very familiar or comfortable making online appointments. Um, and so we're dealing with the population that's more vulnerable, has the greatest number of challenges. So two, one, one has been great. One of the things we've done is significantly expanded and expanding as we speak their capability, they need just more staff. And so they've been adding an onboarding, a tremendous amount of more staff. That's one to one of the things they immediately did. This is, um, uh, some part of early next week, last week, cause they change their menu so that when you call two, one, one, it goes more quickly to, you know, prompt. And I think the sequencing was important cause it was also going through the menu that was difficult, right? Speaker 2: 04:49 For some to, to go through that, the third area was working with our partners in the community, knowing that we're hearing endless stories about how, uh, people have helped their family member or, you know, kind of been the advocate for something. And we think that's great, but not everyone has a family member. Not everyone has that person to help them. So we have actually reached out to the community, helping to be those advocates as well. Uh, we have people that show up at our, at our vaccination sites that don't have an appointment. Um, we take the time they're helping them, um, doing everything we can to get this population in. I'm not sure if you're aware of this when Dr. Wooten opened it up to the 75 and older, um, the hospitals have the electronic medical record. They have these folks that they've worked with or serving they've reached out. Speaker 2: 05:35 Um, and the number of hospitals have set up pods, uh, and have brought them in. I will also add they're over 200 providers, aside from the County that is ordering a vaccine. There are many providers out there that are also providing the vaccine to their patient population. So I think Taryn, just to close the loop on this one, we need more appointments. We need more vaccine because you can have all the capacity, but you don't have vaccine. You're not going to have the appointments to give you an idea of when we opened up yesterday, the North county's vaccination Superstation, uh, I was told within minutes, minutes, all appointments were taken for the 65 and older and Sarah just to provide the context for it alone. That is 635,000 individuals, the healthcare personnel. And then for guest 65 and over it's almost 1.2 million. That's the number that we have to deal with. And we have nowhere near that amount of vaccine. So as appointments that come available, based on that thing, availability they're opened up. And so they are quickly, uh, scheduled. Speaker 3: 06:49 Both of, you have said a number of times you want to approach vaccine distribution through an equity lens. But when I look at the data debt posted on the vaccine dashboard, we do see a higher concentration of vaccines are going to people in the North central part of the County. When we know the South Bay has had higher rates of coronavirus. So how do you explain this? And what's being done to improve on this? Speaker 2: 07:11 Uh, I think we're both respond to that. We're both pretty passionate about this topic. We knew we had to improve upon, um, the convenience and access where people live. And so we guided our work with the healthy places index, um, developed by the state, um, tells us where, and we already know where those health equity communities are. And so we overlaid, uh, our, uh, vaccination sites in those communities. And when you look at one of the first areas we had to start, uh, Petco and South Bay, we did the South Bay saturation strategy, protesting, proud to say we did the South Bay saturation strategy for vaccination. We have a vaccination side of Imperial beach, um, in Chula Vista County. These are County pots with the Superstation Chula Vista national city pod. And we're opening up, I think, uh, tomorrow I'd say of the Seadrill, these sites are open up for everyone. Speaker 2: 08:03 So, but in close proximity, we know there'll be hopefully more people from South. We know that when we have first more of our sites in South and in North, there are people throughout the County coming just like people from South can go to North. But we also know that the, the reality is there are people in the community is going to go to those trusted sites. So, uh, the tub and Chavez center, which is a very popular testing site, we converted it to begin as a two day backside. It's a trusted source. So we're going to what, what the community has told us, uh, where, where they want, uh, and they, they can trust going for vaccinations, right? So that's very important, just like we did a vaccination site and they'll go home or, or in Escondido and Oceanside, you know, St. Marcos, it's following where the data tells us where we need to be. Speaker 2: 08:56 So that has not changed at all. I don't turn to doctor, wouldn't talk to you a little bit about why the numbers may look the way they do at this point point in time. Absolutely. And if you look at the graphic, the vacillation sites aren't in central, they really are in the South region. They aren't yet in the central region, they are in the South region. There are locations in the Northern part of the County that also reflect an increase number of positive cases or increased rates. So that's why we have followed suit with placing locations in our East and Northern part of the County. The first group of individuals that were vaccinated were healthcare professionals. And that's a reflection of the individuals that make up our health care personnel. So, uh, there's a complaint of voice from community members that there's a low number of African-Americans. Well, most individuals that are in healthcare are not African-American or Latino to be quite honest with you. So it's a reflection of what our infrastructure looks like. As we look at the 65 and older, we need to separate that out from the first month of vaccination. And then we will see, uh, look more closely at the race and ethnicity there to see if it's different. And that's what we are currently in the process of doing. Speaker 3: 10:22 We're supposed to be vaccinating people based on some select industries, educators, for example, and then do it based on age. But like we saw with healthcare workers, there are a lot of different job titles within these certain industries to prioritize. So how will you approach, um, these other, uh, job categories when we do get there? Speaker 2: 10:43 Well, the next, uh, three groups will be essential. Workers will be our law enforcement, which is part of the emergency services. Even those of us here fall in that category. Then there will be the, uh, educators and childcare workers followed by food and agriculture. Those are the three essential, uh, uh, sectors or essential workers that we will begin to vaccinate at later this month. And then the state wants to then follow up with the next age groups, which will be 50 to 64 years of age, then 16 to 49 with Iris that are high risk. That's their proposed strategy going forward. It should be related to if they have increased risk, like health conditions, we need to follow the science and the data that tells us that is the group that is highest at risk and need. If you all opens up at the same time, you still were. We still have not gotten about, we think a fair number of folks, 65 and older, they still want the vaccine opening it up. We'll just then compete with those limited appointments where the people who still need it in the very early phases are going to be struggling to get it. So I think we have to be, you know, good stewards here, follow the science and what the data tells us on the sequencing and do it more orderly. Speaker 1: 12:07 That was KPBS health reporter, Taryn, mento interviewing County health and human services, agency, director, Nick mashy, own and public health officer Dr. Wilma woo. Speaker 2: 12:21 Uh,