San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Gender disparity:
More women vaccinated than men.
The data about who gets a coronavirus vaccination is notoriously incomplete — race and ethnicity categories are often missing, for example. But some information exists, and it reveals an intriguing pattern: More women appear to be getting vaccinated than men. Alameda County has given 65% of its shots to women. The figure is about 62% for Contra Costa County and San Mateo County and at least 60% for Marin County. In Solano County, a majority of vaccines also went to women, although the county didn’t have an exact number.
Napa, San Francisco, Santa Clara and Sonoma counties did not provide a vaccine gender breakdown.
These early numbers reflect a national trend: Of people vaccinated nationally from midDecember to midJanuary, 63% of people were women, according to federal data released Monday.
Experts said the disparity in part reflects data that women live longer than men: In the five Bay Area counties that provided gender breakdowns, women over 65 outnumber their male counterparts, though women accounted for half or just over half of the total population. Also, more women work in health care in California due to the high proportion of nurses who are women.
San Mateo County spokesman Preston Merchant cautioned that the data set remains small with vaccine supply still constrained, so the demographics of vaccine recipients thus far reflect health care workers and a small number of the elderly. Dr. Ori Tzvieli, deputy health officer in Contra Costa County, thought the skewed numbers are because more women than men are health care workers. Solano County Health Officer Dr. Bela Matyas said the percentage is a reflection of both who is allowed to be vaccinated and that women tend to be more proactive about health care.
Gender imbalances are reflected in local senior communities. In Oakmont Senior Living’s 34 communities in California, between 65% and 70% of residents are women. At Oakmont of Montecito in Concord, executive director Elaine Wong said around 76% of residents and staff are women.
Both residents and staff are prioritized for vaccines. On Wednesday morning at Oakmont of Montecito, CVS staff bustled about a bistro converted into a vaccine clinic to administer second doses to 160 residents and 80 staff.
“I’m so excited,” said resident Bev Cullen, 80, beaming after she got her second dose. “Couldn’t be better.”
Cullen, whose husband died 21 years ago, moved into the community last March just as lockdown began. She hasn’t gone out or seen her daughter, soninlaw and three grandchildren in nearly a year, although she’s videocalled them and continued to play bridge with four female friends online. On Wednesday, her oldest granddaughter was in labor with her first greatgrandchild, whom she couldn’t wait to meet when it was safe.
In Pittsburg, Hermanese Jones, 85, is scheduled to receive her second dose of the vaccine at her senior independent living community Thursday. Jones can’t wait to play with her two “little beautiful greatgranddaughters.”
“If it helps to get this pandemic under control, yes, I’m very anxious to have it done and to see that my children get it. Of course they’re all grown and on their own, I will encourage them and let them know it won’t do any harm. I think they’re a little alarmed, it’s new and they haven’t had it before,” Jones said. “I’m an elder woman of color, I had no problems doing it, but everybody isn’t as openminded as I am.”
Beyond the senior population,
“I had no problems doing it, but everybody isn’t as openminded as I am.” Hermanese Jones, 85, of Pittsburg
health care workers are currently prioritized for the vaccine. While 66% of doctors providing patient care in the state are male, nurses outnumber doctors more than 5 to 1, according to the California Health Care Foundation. Nurses are predominantly female, with 86.8% women in the most recent survey by the California Board of Registered Nursing. More than threefourths of nursing aides, home health aides and personal care aides in California are women, according to data from the Healthforce Center at UCSF.
Monica Rizzo, a nurse at Kaiser Permanente Antioch and California Nurses Association safety liaison at the hospital, is scheduled for her second dose on Feb. 8. Although there are some male nurses at the facility, she said a majority are female. All have soldiered through a year of the pandemic.
“In general, women are the type of people who are like, we’re just going to do it. It has to be done. It’s sink or swim. That’s the type of personality that you have and it transfers into your profession,” she said. “I feel we don’t get enough credit.”
Alejandra EscobedoSochet, a Contra Costa County mental health worker who received both doses already, said she tries to engage with community members on social media to dispel vaccine conspiracy theories and encourage people to get the shot. The father of her child was sick for a month with COVID19, so she’s always taken the virus seriously.
She said around 70% of her coworkers are also women. She currently screens mental health clients entering a clinic and provides emergency support to families in crisis. Getting the vaccine felt like an affirmation of the value of her work, she said.
Other women felt similarly. Maty CorralAvila, a fulltime caregiver for her 83yearold mother in Martinez, was the first in her household to get the vaccine, through county health services.
“I think that it verifies that what we’re doing is important,” CorralAvila, 61, said about being able to get the vaccine early. Her mother also has gotten her first dose.
In 2017, CorralAvila quit her sixfiguresalary job to take care of her mother fulltime for minimum wage paid through a state program.
Before the lockdown, CorralAvila took her mother to an adult day care program run by the nonprofit Choice in Aging five days a week. Of the group of around 25 to 30 participants, only three or four were men, she said.
CorralAvila’s father, 88, got the vaccine through his senior independent living complex.
“I’m very relieved,” CorralAvila said. “We’ve been trying to take care of ourselves as much as we can. My husband and I have been unable to hug our grandkids for a year. We want to get back to a seminormal life and the only way we’re going to be able to do that is if we all get vaccinated and keep taking care of ourselves.”
Mallory Moench is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mallory. moench@sfchronicle.com Twitter:@mallorymoench