COVID-19 Hospitalizations Continue Steady Decline As 1,415 New Cases Reported

Speaker 1: 00:00 Age before profession. That's the change California health officials announced about the vaccine rollout this week. The plan for the first phase of vaccinations remains in place with healthcare workers and residents 65 and older eligible right now, followed by teachers, farm workers and first responders. But in the second phase of the state's vaccine rollout, instead of workers and manufacturing, retail, transportation, and other essential industries coming next in line, the state says it will move to an age based allocation. And officials announced yesterday that blue shield has been chosen to organize vaccine distribution across California. Joining me is Dr. Mark Sawyer, a specialist in infectious diseases at Rady children's hospital and a member of the state's vaccine advisory board. Dr. Sonya. Welcome. Speaker 2: 00:49 Good morning. Good to join you. Speaker 1: 00:52 Is the science saying about this virus that prompted the change to an age-based vaccination schedule? Speaker 2: 00:59 Well, I'm not sure it's so much to do with the science of the virus. It has to do with our ability to distribute the vaccine. Everybody knows that the vaccine has been rolled out a little bit slower than we would have liked, and there are lots of logistic challenges. So my understanding is the change in recommendation or focused issued by the governor is an attempt to streamline the process Speaker 1: 01:24 Who have been on the job throughout this pandemic bus drivers, supermarket workers, people in warehouses who work in close proximity to each other and the public, they say they're being overlooked by this change. Haven't we seen actually repeated outbreaks in supermarkets and manufacturing. Speaker 2: 01:42 Oh, we've seen outbreaks in many settings. And you know, there are certainly are people who would like to make sure that the governor keeps those people in mind as these new recommendations are rolled out. He did emphasize that equity be included in as an important part of the ingredients, which may mean there may be some fine tuning of this age based recommendation that will make sure that people who are on the front line, who can't have the luxury of working from home will go and get the vaccine in a timely fashion. Speaker 1: 02:15 Now, even people who are already eligible are having difficulty figuring out how to get a shot. KPBS has gotten a lot of questions from listeners about where to go, how to get an appointment. Have you been hearing those questions too? Speaker 2: 02:29 Sure. Yes. Certainly. It has been a big challenge for people to understand when they're due to get to me and where they can go to get it. Now, the state has made another change in that area as well. They're rolled out a new software program. I think it's called my turn, which just started this week, which is supposed to make that process easier for people. Speaker 1: 02:51 And what about people who don't have internet access or maybe aren't that tech savvy? How do they make an appointment? Speaker 2: 02:58 There are phone mechanisms, including calling two, one, one. Speaker 1: 03:02 How should public health be getting this information to the public? Do you think the job that's been done so far has been adequate? Speaker 2: 03:10 I do think public health has done everything. They can. There have been challenges at many levels at the communication level, from the federal government, the vaccine supply level four or five weeks. We have gone from having no vaccines to having immunized millions of people, which is nothing that's ever happened before. Speaker 1: 03:29 Have you discussed a ways different ways to get the news out among the members of the advisory board? I mean, you know, like billboards, TV ads, a huge advertising suite. Speaker 2: 03:43 I think lots of local communities and public health agencies are working with community partners to try to make sure everybody is informed about the tier system per vaccine and where vaccine is, is going to be available. Of course, the media plays an important role in getting the word out as well. It has been a challenge though, because this situation is changing on a daily or weekly basis. Speaker 1: 04:08 Now last week, state epidemiologist, Dr. Erica pan said it could take until June to vaccinate all Californians 65 and older. Why would it take that long? Speaker 2: 04:20 I've heard more optimistic projections for that. Part of the challenge though, is, you know, getting the word out, getting, making sure we're reaching populations in all segments of our society and have different ways of accessing the backseat. Speaker 1: 04:36 It was announced yesterday that blue shield will have oversight on vaccine distribution across the state. What effect do you think that will have? Speaker 2: 04:45 I think it does make sense to have a single entity in charge of vaccine distribution that just simplifies the process. And there has been some confusion about where different providers are getting their vaccine and who's allocating it. So going to a single source is likely to have a positive impact on the smoothness of which vaccine is distributed. Speaker 1: 05:08 Now this week, because of your work with Rady children's hospital, you took part in a CDC discussion about the safety of the COVID vaccines for children. What did you learn? Speaker 2: 05:19 Well, we learned that clinical trials have started already in children down to age 12 and plans are in place to start immunizing younger children in clinical trials, just in the next few weeks. So we are going to learn in the next couple of months, whether these vaccines are equally effective in children as they are in adults. We also had a review from the CDC about national safety data from COVID vaccines, which as up to this point have only been administered to adults and the vaccines continue to be very safe. Some researchers are telling us Speaker 1: 05:58 That we're in a race between the vaccines and the COVID variance. The goal, as I understand it is to get as many people vaccinated before the more contagious variants start ramping cases up and there's news today that San Diego has had its first COVID variant death. How do you see the situation? Speaker 2: 06:18 I think you summarized it quite accurately. The more cases we have, the more opportunity there is for the virus to change and mutate and become a variant and become less susceptible to the vaccine. So it's, it's incumbent on us to try to get this pandemic under control before that happens. The steps to get the pandemic under control are for people to get vaccinated when they get the opportunity and whether you're vaccinated or not continue to wear a mask and socially distance until the pandemic is cooled off. And when the w the number of cases goes down, then we're not going to see nearly as many bearings. Come out. Speaker 1: 07:01 Let me ask you just one more question. Cause I think this is confusing. When someone gets vaccinated, how long do they have to keep wearing a mask? When does the vaccination take cold take effect? Speaker 2: 07:15 The vaccine takes effect within two weeks of your second dose is fully effective. And there is some effect two weeks after your first dose. But at this point, we are still recommending that even after you've had two doses of vaccine, that you continue to wear a mask. Because what we don't know is whether, although the vaccine protects you, it may not keep you from having the virus in your nose. Therefore you may still be contagious and spread it to others. Speaker 1: 07:44 Okay. Then I've been speaking with Dr. Mark Sawyer specialist in infectious diseases at Rady children's hospital and the member of the state's vaccine advisory board. Dr. Sawyer. Thank you very much. Speaker 2: 07:55 It was great to join you.