Doses delayed: Storms slow shipments to state
The winter storms that slammed the Midwest with snow and ice, plunging large swaths of Texas into darkness, have caused widespread vaccine delays in California.
Napa County has essentially “received nothing we expected to receive this week,” Karen Relucio, the county’s public health director, said Thursday. “Nothing has come,” she said, and some residents’ second doses are being delayed as a result.
San Mateo County had expected a shipment of 14,200 Moderna doses but now has no information on when it will arrive, according to spokesperson Preston Merchant.
Vaccinations scheduled for Friday at a clinic at San Francisco International Airport were going forward, but the type of vaccine might switch from Moderna to Pfizer, which could cause some seconddose appointment cancellations, Merchant said.
San Francisco is experiencing “some delays” in shipments because of the inclement weather, the city’s COVID Command Center told The Chronicle on Thursday. Officials did not say how many doses had been affected, but a walkin vaccine clinic at San Francisco General Hospital — announced Thursday — will still be open through Feb. 23.
Marin County saw about 3,500 Moderna doses delayed, county spokesperson Laine Hendricks said. The county was able to dip into its emergency vaccine allocation, but about 300 appointments might still be canceled due to the shortage.
Alameda County said 3,000 doses have been delayed, and while countyoperated vaccine sites should have enough vaccines this week, more supplies will be needed to continue operating the sites.
A spokesperson for Santa Clara County said “a number” of Moderna doses destined for the county have been delayed, though it has not had a major impact on distribution so far, and existing appointments can be accommodated with supplies on hand.
But “continued delays could pose a problem,” the county spokesperson said.
Sonoma County received about 400 fewer doses of the vaccine this week than it had anticipated due to the storms, Supervisor Chris Coursey said — 7,610 doses when it had expected about 8,000.
The full scope of the issue was still unclear Thursday afternoon, though delays were affecting the entire state. Sacramento County had not yet received its shipment for next week’s vaccinations, the Sacramento Bee reported. Some sites in San Diego had to cancel ap
“I would expect that these numbers would only get worse.” Dr. Kirsten BibbinsDomingo, health equity researcher at UCSF, on the drop in life expectancy
pointments Thursday, according to NBC 7.
White House spokesperson Jen Psaki said Thursday that the federal government was working “to help mitigate potential delivery delays and cancellations."
That could include moving up scheduled deliveries or “surg (ing) shipment operations through the end of the week into the weekend,” Psaki said.
Earlier this week, the Biden administration said the extreme weather was expected to affect major shipment hubs — a FedEx facility in Memphis and one for UPS in Louisville, Ky.
Meanwhile, the toll of the pandemic came into clearer focus, with the Bay Area surpassing 5,000 COVID19 deaths Thursday.
Life expectancy in the United States fell by a full year, the federal government reported Thursday, marking the most staggering drop since World War II.
From 2019 to the first half of 2020, the average life expectancy for Americans was 77.8 years, down from 78.8 years, according to preliminary estimates published Thursday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Minorities suffered the most. From 2019 to the first half of 2020, life expectancy decreased 2.7 years for Black people, to 72. It dropped 1.9 years for Hispanics, to 79.9, and 0.8 years for white people, to 78. The preliminary report did not analyze trends for Asian or Native Americans.
“What is really quite striking in these numbers is that they only reflect the first half of the year,” said Dr. Kirsten Bibbins-Domingo, a health equity researcher and UCSF. “I would expect that these numbers would only get worse.”
Black and Hispanic communities are hit hardest, Bibbins-Domingo said, because they are more likely to be in frontline, lowwage jobs and living in crowded environments where it’s easier for the virus to spread.
White House coronavirus senior adviser Andy Slavitt predicted Thursday that the administration’s vaccine distribution will continue to increase. It’s at 13.5 million doses weekly, up from 8.6 million doses when President Biden took office a month ago.
Pressed on the topic of when things may get back to normal, he said administration officials are not certain, especially given coronavirus variants and vaccine hesitancy.
“There’s a lot we don’t know about the future,” Slavitt said. “We are trying not to give a false sense of security.”