Dismayed by the slow pace of vaccinations in the city, San Francisco supervisors held a hearing Thursday on a proposal to require that health officials submit a written COVID-19 vaccination plan and make it publicly available.
The emergency ordinance stipulates that the plan include a description of the steps the Department of Health will take to meet the goal of administering at least 10,000 COVID-19 vaccinations, and a timeline for completing the vaccination of city residents. It also would require the city to post information online, including the number of doses administered, the demographic breakdown of recipients, and where people can sign up to get vaccinated.
"As of January 18, 2021, the City was administering fewer than 2,000 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine per day, on average," the ordinance notes. "At that rate, vaccination of all people who live or work in San Francisco would not be achieved until 2022. Vaccination at such a slow pace would severely undermine efforts to curb the pandemic."
The hearing also included a discussion about equity. Dr. Naveena Bobba, deputy director of health as the San Francisco Department of Public Health, said the department is situating vaccine resources in areas with disproportionately high COVID-19 case rates, including hospitalizations and deaths. "And that’s by far in the southeast sector of the city," she said.
Supervisor Matt Haney asked how the city would support people under 65 who are not at the front of the line for the vaccine but may be more vulnerable to the coronavirus due to underlying health conditions or disabilities.
"That actually is something that the state has brought up as potentially one of the changes that they want to make to their guidelines," Bobba said. "It is really prioritizing people with comorbidities that put them at risk for COVID. So we are waiting for that guidance."
The full Board of Supervisors will hold a final vote on the ordinance on Feb. 9.
Meanwhile, the city opened a new large vaccination site Thursday at Moscone Center, run by Kaiser. San Francisco continues to prioritize people 65 and over.
—Polly Stryker and Jon Brooks