Petco Park Vaccination Super Station Will Reopen Wednesday

Speaker 1: 00:00 A shipment of vaccines that will allow the Superstation at Petco park to reopen is expected today. The vaccine location, one of the county's largest has been shut down since Sunday. If the shipment is received today, it will reopen Wednesday. So what does that mean for access and availability? Joining me to discuss the impact of the shutdown is KPBS reporter, Matt Hoffman, Matt. Welcome. Hey Jade. So first remind us what caused the Petco site to shut down. Speaker 2: 00:29 Yeah, last Friday, the County let everyone know that they had missed a large shipment of Madrona vaccines and that had an effect on a County wide operations, basically. Uh, they said that they would have to shut down operations at that UC San Diego site, which is the busiest in the County by far. I mean doing 5,000 vaccinations daily sometimes, well over. So they were closed Sunday, Monday and today. And we heard yesterday from UC San Diego health, that that shipment is on track and that they will reopen on Wednesday. Speaker 1: 00:56 Do we know why the modernist shipment was missed? Speaker 2: 00:59 We don't know why we just know it was missed. You know, I had a chance to ask supervisor Fletcher last week, if there's any, you know, fault here, we can say, you know, it's the county's fault, not placing an order or, you know, this is a shipment delay. Um, and he said, you know, this is just something that's like the ebbs and flows of the shipment process. You know, something like this we knew could happen. And unfortunately it did happen. Speaker 1: 01:17 So why was Petco the only local vaccine site to be impacted? Speaker 2: 01:21 I will say that they're the only local vaccine site that completely shut down on Friday. The County said that, you know, countywide, that there will be an impact and vaccinations will slow. And in some cases we'll pause with appointments rescheduled. Now we don't know if that may have impacted some of the counties, smaller pods, a bunch of the counties, partners that they work with to get the vaccinations out. Um, but we do know that it is affecting other sites, but obviously not a complete closure like we saw at the downtown location. Speaker 1: 01:44 As you mentioned, a vaccine shipment is expected to arrive today. Have you heard if it's been received yet Speaker 2: 01:50 Heard if it's been received yet, but we did hear that it is on track to arrive today. So that, that would mean that UC San Diego is planning to open up that site tomorrow. And we do know that some of the other sites, you know, like the one at Grossmont center, some people we talked to there yesterday said that they were getting their Madonna, their Medina doses. So we know that doses are still going out and a lot of people are still getting Pfizer doses. Speaker 1: 02:10 What do you know about access to this vaccine? I know it's been tough for people to get the appointments they need, but it's been particularly difficult for people of color. Why is that? Speaker 2: 02:20 Yeah, we know that at least in the, in the Latino population, that they have been most heavily impacted by COVID-19 in San Diego County, but they're not getting the majority of the vaccinations now. Uh, you know, there's a bunch of ways that county's trying to address that. And the state, you know, working on pilot programs with Bromo Torres, who are community health workers hitting the South Bay, um, areas like city Heights and, you know, talking to some of the people on the ground, some of those Promatores, you know, they say a lot of people in that, in those areas, you know, don't have easy access to transportation. And really what they're hearing in those communities is that the people want the vaccines to be taken directly to them, you know, open up a big, large vaccination site in city Heights where people can just, you know, walk outside their door, you know, maybe less than half a mile and go get vaccinated. We're not the only area Speaker 1: 03:00 To be impacted by vaccine shortages. Are we? Speaker 2: 03:03 No, we're not. You know, we saw some stuff up in LA. They haven't, you know, pause and shut down some of their vaccination sites. So not only is it affecting, you know, San Diego, it's also affecting Southern California, Speaker 1: 03:14 Well, people who had appointments scheduled over the last three days, be the first to be vaccinated once the, the site reopens. Speaker 2: 03:20 I don't know if there'll be the first to be vaccinated, but UC San Diego health officials tell us that their appointments were automatically rescheduled something interesting though. Um, you know, obviously we know that the site was going to be closed for a few days. They obviously said that they notified people, but yesterday we were downtown near that Petco park location. Um, and there was a lot of people driving up, you know, clearly looking for their appointments. Um, you know, surprised when the guard at the gate turned them away. Um, he was saying that on Sunday, there was a lot of cars that came by looking for their appointments. So people, you know, need to check their emails to see, you know, or, you know, check their messages to make sure that they're getting these updates. I know for some people, you know, even though there's a vaccination site downtown, some people are coming, you know, from Valley center from Vista. Um, and sometimes, you know, take a day off work, maybe take a loved one down. There is a lot. So make sure you're checking those emails. Cause some appointments are getting rescheduled with these vaccines shorter. Speaker 1: 04:06 And for those who haven't been vaccinated yet or scheduled appointments, what's the best way to do that right now. Speaker 2: 04:12 Yeah. So the best way is to go to the county's website because there's a couple of like competing portals, so to speak, you know, UC San Diego, the Petco park Superstation they use my chart. Now a lot of the stations are on the state's platform called my turn. And then you have something Cal fire, San Diego sites that also use a different platform, uh, as they reach, you know, some of those rural communities. So the county's website, you know, has all those listed right there. And that's the best place you can go to find all that information. Speaker 1: 04:35 I've been speaking with KPBS reporter, Matt Hoffman, Matt. Thank you. Thanks.