The rollout of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine hasn't been entirely smooth, with California and other states complaining they did not receive as many doses as originally promised. The U.S. Army general responsible for vaccine distribution took personal responsibility for any miscommunication.
KQED's Brian Watt this week interviewed Dr. Kathleen Clanon, medical director of the Alameda County Health Care Services Agency, about the shortfall and how vaccine distribution is going in the county. The following has been lightly edited for length and clarity.
Did the discrepancy in what was expected and what arrived have an impact on distribution plans in Alameda County?
Dr. Kathleen Clanon: It did, yeah. We kind of had to scramble and inform some of our hospitals that they were getting fewer doses than we originally thought.
How many health care workers have been vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine?
Last week, we got 13,600 doses of the Pfizer vaccine, and pretty much all of them are now out there. So we believe about 13,000 health care workers have been vaccinated so far.
How has the county been discussing who will get the vaccine after health care workers and first responders?
The state is working on prioritization of different groups of essential workers and different kinds of health care workers. So we are a little bit waiting on them. Then we have a community process also in our county to look at what they give us, and try to figure out where and who within those categories.
There have been nearly 600 total deaths, 43,000 total cases in Alameda County. How is the county dealing with this?
This is definitely a scary moment. There are more people in the hospital right now than at any point during the pandemic. People are tired. People are really looking for some relief in the hospitals. But we are holding steady. We're doing a little better than most of the other counties in the Bay Area.