California To Open Vaccinations To Everyone 16 And Older

Speaker 1: 00:00 The way to get vaccinated just got shorter in California, adults 50 and up can get appointments starting April 1st. And then what used to be dreaded tax day, April 15th is the day all California in 16 and up become eligible for a COVID vaccination and announcing the changes. Governor Newsome said the state is expected to get a steadily increasing supply of vaccines up to 3 million doses a week that will allow vaccination sites to book more appointments. And the hope is more vaccinations means less time for the COVID variants circulating throughout the state to cause another spike in cases, San Diego County supervisor Nathan Fletcher told KPBS yesterday that while the increase in supply is a step in the right direction, much work still needs to be done in the statewide vaccination effort. Speaker 2: 00:50 We know our allocation for next week is about now it's about 15% higher than what we got this week. So it's trending in the right direction, but 15% is not enough to alleviate the real stress on the system right now. And so, you know, what it just tells me is that the state is very confident that the supplies are going to significantly increase. And I know for San Diegans that cannot come soon enough. Speaker 1: 01:10 And joining me now is Dr. Christian Ramers is a family health centers of San Diego. Dr. Ramers is also on San Diego county's clinical vaccine advisory panel. Dr. Ramers welcome back to the show. Thank you. Good to be with you now, hundreds of thousands of people in San Diego have now been added to the ranks of people eligible to get vaccinated. Do you think we're ready to handle that? Speaker 2: 01:33 Yeah, I think it's a balance, you know, we've, we've tried to proceed through these stages and phases in a really orderly way and really direct the vaccine to those that are most vulnerable. But as you just heard, the supply is increasing and we are in a little bit of a time crunch against these variants. Um, and so we just want to, you know, make access a little bit wider and understandably there will be a new crush of people trying to get vaccines. And although the supply is better, there is a little bit of a bottleneck in terms of getting scheduled. So, um, I think it's the right time to open things up a little bit more. And then we always always ask people's patients, uh, as they try to make appointments and get vaccinated. Speaker 1: 02:13 It's been difficult for eligible people to get an appointment for a vaccination. So will the increased supply that San Diego was getting make that easier, even with so many more people eligible? Speaker 2: 02:26 Um, well in some cases the supply is not necessarily the limiting factor. It's the actual personnel that are needed to administer the vaccine. So, uh, the supply certainly does help. Uh, what happened with this last phase and phase one C with underlying conditions is a lot of the vaccination sites shifted into actual doctor's offices. Um, so I think the message to the public really should be, you know, talk to your own healthcare provider. Uh, keep in mind, there are other venues that you can get vaccinated if you're not able to get an immediate appointment such as some of these County sites, um, as well as in, in local pharmacies. So multiple pathways to get vaccinated. People do have to be smart shoppers though, and try to get an appointment. And there are now entities that are helping those that are less technologically savvy to go ahead and get appointments as well. What Speaker 1: 03:13 Are those entities? Can you give us an example? Speaker 2: 03:16 Well, there's a couple of nonprofits. I think San Diego vaccine angels is one of them that I've heard of other volunteers trying to help people that have limited technology access, uh, to get appointments Speaker 1: 03:26 Now, as we see eligibility expand, are there any safeguards in place to ensure that those with the highest need will get their shots? Speaker 2: 03:34 It's a really good question, Maureen, because of course we have not vaccinated absolutely 100% of all the prior phases. And so what we don't want to have happen is this huge crush of patients that are trying to get appointments and sort of pushing out others. Um, and we also know there are several equity neighborhoods as we call them where the vaccination rates have been relatively lower. So simultaneously as we're increasing supply and opening up more eligibility, we also need to be doing additional efforts to target certain neighborhoods. For example, 9,103. Uh, the zip code of Barrio Logan is a, is a region where there have been relatively low vaccination rates. And so family health centers is doing a really specific targeted effort, including even door to door knocking to have those conversations and get people off the fence. If they're still a little bit hesitant, uh, and get the more vulnerable populations vaccinated. So we're doing a lot of things at once opening up the eligibility and also continuing to target vulnerable neighborhoods. Speaker 1: 04:30 The nurse said that family members who show up with a person who has an appointment for a vaccine can also get vaccinated, but then local health centers walked that back and said, everyone needs an appointment. What are you hearing about that? Speaker 2: 04:42 Well, we have hundreds of vaccinators throughout San Diego County. So it's hard to know exactly what everybody's doing at the same time, but I think what you hear in that, in that discussion is the urgency to try to get as many people protected as possible. And that really has to do with these variants. It was a little bit alarming to hear that we have the variant from Brazil already in San Diego, especially because one of the two cases had no travel history at all. And we know that these variants, particularly the 1351 from South Africa really has reduced activity of the vaccines against them. And so what we need to do is, is really prevent, spread, and really get as many people protected as possible. We think that's a sort of 75% number, and we know that about 31% of people in San Diego have received their first dose. So I think that reflects a little bit of the urgency to really not miss that opportunity to vaccinate somebody. I can't speak for all different providers. People are doing kind of different things on the ground. Speaker 1: 05:35 Along with the variance. There's also concerned about a spring break surge. Do you think that's likely Speaker 2: 05:42 What we've seen throughout the pandemic is every time that we have increased interaction with each other, whether it's changing the rules and restaurants or gyms, um, or, uh, you know, big events like, uh, holidays or, um, uh, we've seen 4th of July and the Christmas holidays and everything. There is more human interaction in, there are more cases what's a little bit different is we're going into this, having protected most of our highly vulnerable people, such as those over age 65. And so what we're seeing clinically is more young. People are showing up with infection. Now it's less likely to lead to hospitalization and death, but it still perpetuates the chain of transmission. So yes, I do expect that. We'll see a little bit of a bumping cases. Speaker 1: 06:21 I've been speaking with Dr. Christian Ramers of family health centers of San Diego. Dr. Ramers as always. Thank you very much. Speaker 2: 06:29 Thank you so much for having me.