Inoculating the state and himself
The splashy timing and setting of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s State of the State address, delivered Tuesday evening from Dodger Stadium, made it look like the opening pitch of his campaign to endure an increasingly likely recall election. More than any speech, the coronavirus vaccines and all their attendant benefits — from spectator sports to amusement parks — may yet inoculate Newsom against a potential threat to his political career while, more importantly, saving Californians’ lives.
First the governor must overcome the attention deficit and administrative drift that continue to dog his pandemic response, including what he called “the most robust vaccination program in America.” Months into the pivotal logistical challenge of his tenure, Newsom is still tinkering with the management and priorities of the vaccination program, irritating local officials and frustrating the public.
If the disarray persists, it could compound the sense of disorder that has pervaded Newsom’s ricocheting between closing and reopening the economy, his administration’s struggle to ramp up testing capacity, and the state bureaucracy’s floundering under a surge of legitimate and fraudulent unemployment claims.
The governor’s latest major adjustment to vaccinations reserved 40% of doses for neighborhoods designated as disadvantaged in an attempt to address
disparities in distribution while expediting business reopenings once vaccination benchmarks are reached. But it caused an uproar among Bay Area officials who complained that the region was being shortchanged, forcing Newsom to renegotiate the new policy with legislators and local officials this week as the change was poised to take effect. The prioritization of disadvantaged Californians followed a series of earlier recalibrations to target other populations, including older people, health care and emergency personnel, farmworkers, and teachers.
Another significant change just ushered in by the administration, a contract with the insurer Blue Shield to manage statewide vaccine distribution, has met even more pushback. Santa Clara County is one of several local governments resisting the arrangement on the suspicion that it would only complicate regional vaccination efforts. Just one of the state’s 58 counties has signed a contract with the company.
California’s success in vaccinating its population compared with its counterparts has improved but remains underwhelming. The state ranks near the middle of the pack in share of population vaccinated, at 18.5%, and in the bottom third in proportion of doses administered, 77.8%, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
California has lost more lives to the pandemic than any other state — over 54,000, or nearly as many as Dodger
Stadium can hold — but fewer than the nation and most states as a share of its population. The governor’s latest and fastest reopening, which could put fans back in stadium seats in a few weeks, risks accelerating the virus in an uncertain race with the vaccinations.