‘Vaccine tourism’ raises concerns

LAKE COUNTY >> The Lake County Board of Supervisors raised concerns Tuesday about COVID-19 vaccines going to residents from outside of the county and setting back the county’s progress.

The board gave consensus that it would like county volunteers to track the number of non-Lake County residents coming to local vaccine sites. When the state fully hands over responsibility for vaccine distribution across the state to Blue Shield in a few weeks, counties will be required to allow non-residents to make appointments.

Board Chairman Bruno Sabatier brought forward the idea of getting an estimated count and questioned whether Lake County should be sending a bill to surrounding counties for doses provided to their residents.

“This is just a hurdle that I don’t see us winning, on our end,” Sabatier said. “I think that with the lack of resources that many of our folks have, in the competition with surrounding counties that have more resources, we’re going to end up getting further and further behind.”

Supervisor Moke Simon cautioned the board

against giving overwhelmed county staff and volunteers additional duties, but supervisors Tina Scott and Jessica Pyska said they agreed with Sabatier on the need for data in order to better advocate for the county.

Pyska said she was aware of “vaccine tourism” already taking place locally, and Pace acknowledged the county was not catching everybody who was trying to game the system. He said the county had gone off the “honor system” in some instances — for example, for people in vaccine-eligible groups who said they had a second home in the county.

“We have to have data to back it up if we’re going to be going to the state and saying this is happening and we need to remedy it,” Pyska said.

Overall though, Pace said he was optimistic about the coming weeks with the county projected to move into the less restrictive red tier soon and distribution of the single dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine beginning locally on Thursday.

So far, about 15,400 total doses of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines have been administered in Lake County, said Sarah Marikos, epidemiologist for Lake County. About 10,100 residents — about 20% of the adult population — have received one dose. About 5,200 residents — about 10% of the adult population — have had both doses.

Here is the amount of Lake County residents who have received one vaccine dose, broken down by age group, according to county data:

Over 75: 51% 65-74: 42% 55-64: 10% 45-54: 13% 3544%: 10% 20-34%: 9%

Here is the amount of Lake County residents who have received one vaccine dose, broken down by racial/ethnic group, according to county data:

White, non-Hispanic: 17% Latino/Hispanic: 10% Native American, non-Hispanic: 3% (not including Indian Health Service data) Multi-racial or other race, non-Hispanic: 16% Black, non-Hispanic: 11% Asian, non-Hispanic: 28% Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, non-Hispanic: 74%