Blue Shield CEO: Vaccination Has Slowed Statewide

Speaker 1: 00:00 San Diego County has reached another milestone, 3 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine administered 44% of the county's residents are fully vaccinated and 42% statewide, but there's many more to go to avoid another surge. The state has hired blue shield to help it distribute vaccines to hospitals and clinics across California. Paul Markovich, president and CEO of blue shield of California. Joins us to talk about the hurdles. The state must overcome to slow the spread of coronavirus. Paul, welcome. Speaker 2: 00:32 Thank you for having me. So what's Speaker 1: 00:34 The demand for vaccines right now. I mean, here in California, eligibility has expanded and so has hesitancy among some people. Speaker 2: 00:42 Well, we went for probably the better part of a five or six weeks averaging over a little over two and a half million administered doses per week. And right now that rate has fallen to 2 million in the last week. And I believe it's going to fall materially below that in the coming weeks. So it's falling off noticeably, uh, the number of people that were vaccinating each week and probably not surprising given that more than 60% of Californians have already received a single shot. And we know from surveys that probably around 20% or so have significant hesitancy to the vaccine. So we're getting to the point where the people who are left to vaccinate are probably harder to reach and are having a little more difficult time getting over the concern about whether to get vaccinated. Speaker 1: 01:31 What does the slipping demand mean for the vaccine supply? I mean, will we keep them or give them to other countries? Speaker 2: 01:38 Well, that's ultimately a decision for the federal government as to what they want to do with the federal supply. We're trying to make use of the supply that we have here as best that we can. And, uh, so I, I'm not sure how to, how to best answer that question. I think the most important thing for us is these are really valuable vaccines. They provide a great deal of protection to the most infectious and deadly virus we've seen in our lifetimes. And I think we'd like to make as extensive use of them as we possibly can, as soon as we can. Speaker 1: 02:11 Would you like to see to counter vaccine hesitant? Speaker 2: 02:14 Well, I think when it comes to vaccine hesitancy, the most important thing is to try and meet people where they are. Uh, this is a personal decision and there's people who have concerns about it and understanding what those concerns are, hearing them out and hopefully getting them the information that they'd like to, to hear and see, and in particular to have them hear it and see it from the individual or organization that they find most trustworthy, that's the best way to get people there and there in different places, uh, there's different reasons. People have hesitancy to take the vaccine and their level of trust varies depending on the person. So it really is a bit of an individual choice. And so I think there's going to have to be a lot of different initiatives to get there, making it more convenient, accessible, making the vaccine more available to smaller physician practices because that's a one trusted source for people as their personal physician, uh, would be an example, but also making it more accessible places like potentially school sites where both the students and their families could get vaccinated is another way to potentially help overcome vaccine hesitancy. Speaker 1: 03:21 Hmm. Do you think California is going to reach a 75% rate for vaccinations or that herd immunity? Everyone keeps talking. Speaker 2: 03:28 Yes, I believe California will, but I think it's important not just for the state as a whole to get there. I think it's important for every single community to get there. And I think that is going to be more challenging and take a longer period of time because the vaccine hesitancy does vary by geographic area. And so yes, we, I absolutely believe we'll get to that herd immunity level for the state at large. And the, and the bigger challenge will be to get there at every single community level. Speaker 1: 03:56 What adjustments are you making to improve access to the vaccine in communities of concern? Speaker 2: 04:01 Well, we've been, uh, working closely with the state to prioritize the supply of vaccine to the most vulnerable communities and our highest risk populations. We've introduced now on my turn, the ability for people who are home bound or need transportation to get vaccinated in their homes or get free transportation to a location, to be vaccinated. And there's a lot of work going into the state, announced that it's going out and doing a, working with community organizations to literally go knock on doors and try to convince people to get vaccinated. And we're doing a lot more to work on getting individual physicians, supply the vaccine and sites that are more accessible to people such as the school sites I mentioned earlier. So we want to make it more convenient, more accessible, proactively outreach to people. So there's a lot of work going on, much of it's being managed by the state itself rather than blue shield as the third-party administrator, but we are working closely with the state to support those efforts. Speaker 1: 05:01 And now the teenagers can get the vaccine. What changes have been made in the process for instance, are you partnering with any school districts or what about in San Diego specifically? Speaker 2: 05:11 Yes. Well, we certainly are, um, uh, along with the state and the local health jurisdictions like San Diego County, uh, trying to work to do a number of things, one is to again, identify those pediatricians that have the ability and the willingness to be vaccinators, because one of the trusted sources for vaccines for children is a, is the pediatrician. We believe that school sites can potentially provide that opportunity. So getting access to those school sites when folks are in the classroom and hopefully making it easy for family members to join them is I think another way that we can do that, I think there's a multitude of ways to reach that population, but those are probably the two main ones we're focused on right now. And are the Speaker 1: 05:58 Big super sites still useful or is the need for them diminish Speaker 2: 06:02 The need for them is definitely diminishing. And, uh, I think we're getting into much more targeting at a smaller level with smaller numbers of people. I think, uh, I mentioned school sites, but I think religious institutions, uh, are another place where we could potentially find people gathering. You can imagine, uh, that I know that in Los Angeles, they're actually going out and trying to bring back scene to the beaches and find people who are there at the beach to see if they want to get vaccinated. I know in Seattle that they, uh, set some vaccine out for people who are coming to a baseball game. So, you know, I think however, convenient we can make it an accessible, we can make it for people. That's the sort of thing we're going to need to do. And I don't think there's probably going to be enough demand to support mass vaccination sites for a whole lot longer. Speaker 1: 06:53 I've been speaking with Paul Markovich, president and CEO of blue shield of California. Paul, thank you so much for joining us. Speaker 2: 07:00 It was my pleasure. Thank you for having me, Jane.