The ongoing conundrum that is the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines.

Good evening,

Pam Marino here, reporting on the ongoing conundrum that is the distribution of Covid-19 vaccines. Two weeks ago, there was a collective sense of optimism when the first vaccines rolled out in Monterey County hospitals. 

I remember feeling a small thrill when I heard Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital was about to vaccinate the very first frontline workers. That thrill proved to be short lived.

Within days, the Weekly received a few angry messages from people in the local medical community. Why were the hospitals vaccinating everyone, down to parking lot attendants, when EMTs/private practice doctors and nurses/public nurses/fill-in-the-blank were forced to wait?

People asked: Who is making the rules? How were they being made? Was it the county’s responsibility? Or the state’s?

Add to these local questions a national news backdrop of missteps at the federal level for ordering and delivering vaccines and a lack of planning for getting needles in arms. In Southern California, some health care workers are reportedly turning down the vaccine. Then there are stories of hospitals or pharmacies with doses of vaccine about to expire pulling random people aside asking, “hey, you want to be vaccinated?” 

It’s leaving people confused and understandably upset. Newly elected Fourth District Supervisor Wendy Root Askew—sworn in just this morning and seated as chair of the board because it’s the Fourth District’s turn—said in her first meeting as supervisor today that she hears “panic” in peoples’ voices asking when it will be their turn.

A big chunk of this afternoon’s Board of Supervisors meeting focused on the distribution of vaccines. Not all the questions were answered, but Health Director Edward Moreno provided a little more detail than was previously provided.

He shared a new Health Department web page with more specifics of the state’s tier system. He also listed some of the county staff helping to make consensus decisions on vaccine distribution and organization of clinics.

Supervisors asked for a timeline, but Moreno said it’s too difficult to say exactly when we’ll move from one tier to another until everyone who wants a vaccine gets one, in part because the number of doses provided from the state varies from one day to the next. 

As Askew pushed for more transparency so the public can understand what’s happening with vaccines, County Administrator Charles McKee promised an upcoming webinar for media types like me, and the public, that will offer more answers. 

I’m currently working on an extended Q&A blog post that will attempt to answer your questions (and mine). If you’ve got a question about Covid-19 vaccinations, please send it my way and I’ll do my best to find an answer.

-Pam Marino, staff writer, pam@mcweekly.com