Sheriff: Vaccine likely 6-9 months away for most
The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors received an update on the situation surrounding COVID-19 in the county on Tuesday morning. Much of the discussion was related to the distribution of the vaccines and the “vast community effort” it takes.
“It’s the tool that we really feel is going to end this pandemic,” said county health officer Dr. Ian Hoffman.
But the process is going to be lengthy.
“I think what is really, really telling is that, as far as this being open to the public, a vaccine is likely six to nine months away from being readily available to the public,” said county Sheriff William Honsal, who was on a call last week with California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly. “And so that was something that was kind of shocking to me … . So, so it is going to take some time.”
Vaccine Distribution
Hoffman said the county has received around 5,500 doses of vaccine and 3,600 have been administered to people in the first tier of distribution, which primarily includes frontline health care workers associated with major local health care providers.
He noted the first vaccine was given to a local hospital employee three weeks ago and that the vaccines currently arriving in the county are for second doses. Both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines require a second dose to be effective.
“if you’re part of a major medical organization within Humboldt County — and this is true across the county, across California and across the country — if you’re part of one of those major organizations, you’ve probably been offered your chance to get a vaccine,” Hoffman said.
He said the remaining folks in the initial tier are likely part of local independent practices.
He noted that in addition to local hospitals, other organizations are gearing up to provide vaccinations. Nationwide pharmacy chain CVS has started vaccinations at a local skilled nursing facility.
Safeway is working to get vaccines to the public. And Public Health is opening a clinic three days a week with a goal of vaccinating 750 people a week, Hoffman said.
TIER status
Hoffman also discussed Humboldt County’s stateassigned risk tier status, which was shifted back to red last week.
“I think I made it very clear that all of us at Public Health we’re surprised by that (move to red) given the numbers that we saw internally,” Hoffman said.
He said two of the criteria used to determine tier increased to amounts that put the county on track to return to the purple tier, a move that would yet again curtail local business activities.
“We might easily go back in the purple,” he said. “And my update for today is that the numbers do look solidly purple for this week.”
He added that numbers the county deals with are “in real time” and the state team is basing decisions on information that is two weeks old or more.
Hof fman’s statement contrasts sharply with Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has repeated in recent news conferences that data is “assessed in real time.”
Hoffman said it was likely the state would return Humboldt County to the purple tier by Jan. 12.
“We’re in a place in Humboldt County where we are the only open county in the entire state,” Hoffman said, noting that other counties not in the purple tier are under a regional stay-at-home order.
“… So I would encourage us as Humboldt County to continue to consider acting as if we are in the purple tier, one because I think the level of virus in our community dictates that. And number two, I think it’s likely that we will go back into purple.”