An ambitious plan tailored to deliver coronavirus vaccines to California’s most vulnerable populations is fraying under pressure to simplify and speed up the state’s rocky vaccination rollout.
A week after Gov. Gavin Newsom expanded vaccine eligibility to residents 65 and older, state officials are now proposing a plan to complete vaccinations for all seniors before anyone else. The shift is causing frustration among health advocates who have spent the last two months hashing out a plan that prioritized essential workers and gave more weight to racial and socioeconomic factors.
With a scarce vaccine supply and a mounting death toll, the tension between equity and efficiency is increasing.
“The feedback that we got is, the first system is too complicated, it’s slowing us down,” said Tomás Aragón, the new director of the state’s public health department, who helped outline the new age-based priority proposal at public meetings on Jan. 12 and 20. “Got to keep it simple. Simplicity is going to save lives.”
Distributing vaccines by age is easier and will help ease the burden on the state’s overwhelmed health care system, Aragón said. Older people account for 65% of ICU admissions in California and 83% of deaths, according to the latest state health data.
But there are 6.2 million Californians 65 and older, and the state is only receiving up to 500,000 doses of vaccine every week, according to state epidemiologist Dr. Erica Pan. At that rate, the state wouldn’t begin vaccinating essential workers until May.
Equity advocates called this proposed delay “disturbing," arguing that many agricultural workers face equal or higher health risk at work than do elderly people who may have the means to shelter at home.