Making vaccinations simpler, faster
California’s vaccination effort has grown more costly and convoluted but not much more effective. With federal vaccine supplies expected to increase and the state still struggling to administer shots at an average pace, the most promising course is to make most Californians eligible for vaccination as soon as possible.
Gov. Gavin Newsom recently turned over the laggard vaccine rollout to insurance giant Blue Shield, a generous supporter of his campaigns and causes dating to his San Francisco days. The nobid contract appears to have made an immediate impact on the state’s bottom line. The Department of Finance last week projected that the state’s pandemic response would cost $15 billion, $2.1 billion more than the governor’s latest budget estimated, with about half the increase attributable to the vaccination program.
So far the effect on vaccination rates has not been as dramatic. The state recently moved to prioritize residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods for shots along with those with health conditions, those 65 and older, health care and emergency personnel, and other essential workers. California ranks near the national average and the middle of the pack among states in the share of its population to have received at least one vaccine dose, nearly 26%. But it’s still in the bottom third of states in the share of received doses administered, about 77%, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, and it fared even worse in a recent federal analysis of vaccine equity.
The best hope for improving that performance probably isn’t another huge contract or finetuning of eligibility criteria. It’s making vaccination broadly available and accelerating efforts to get ahead of virus variants, vaccine hesitancy and, perhaps most ominous, the resumption of risky activities such as indoor dining in the Bay Area and beyond.
Local officials are already leading in the right direction in that regard. Contra Costa County this week joined Solano County in offering vaccinations to anyone 50 or older. Several states have taken the same step or gone further, with a few offering shots to anyone 16 or older. President Biden has urged all the states to make every adult eligible by May 1, and Newsom said last week that he plans to do so by then.
Given California’s struggles to date and the prospect of another viral surge, officials should be moving to administer more vaccinations with at least the urgency with which they’re reopening stadiums and amusement parks.