Wood helps vaccinate teachers
North Coast Assemblyman still waiting for own vaccine
North Coast Assemblyman Jim Wood (D-santa Rosa) volunteered on Tuesday to be part of the effort to vaccinate local residents when it was discovered a clinic was taking place in the same building as Wood’s Ukiah office.
“The event was actually being staged in the conference center in Ukiah where my office is,” Wood told the Times-standard on Wednesday afternoon. “So, we heard about it and heard that they were looking for help and so I just volunteered.”
Wood said Mendocino County has wrapped up vaccinations for Tier 1A recipients who include most frontline health care workers, and the vaccinations he was giving were for teachers. He said around 250 people who were teachers or support staff received vaccinations Tuesday.
“Those people that got vaccinated yesterday got an appointment to go back in three weeks to have a second vaccine,” he said.
He expected similar events to happen in Humboldt County, although he personally is not aware of them. He noted that each county is tackling the massive vaccination effort differently.
“Every county is doing things just a little bit differently and that makes it even harder for someone like me who represents five counties to figure out what’s going on,” he said.
Wood himself has not received a vaccination.
“I have not gotten the vaccine yet,” he said. “And I think I’m certainly eligible to do it and I absolutely will.”
He said he has been taking
extensive precautions to stay healthy during the pandemic and noted the morgue where he works in forensic dentistry is well stocked with PPE.
“There is a movement to vaccinate the vaccinators and so yeah, I will, be one of those very soon,” he added.
He said the goal he is hearing is to reach 75% of the population vaccinated to reach herd immunity, but he also recognizes “you’re always going to have a percentage of the population that that isn’t going to want to do that.”
He said he is focused on getting vaccines for those whowantone.
“If you want to be vaccinated, I want to see that you get vaccinated,” he said. “Right now, I don’t have time, personally, to work on trying to convince somebody who doesn’t want to be vaccinated to be vaccinated. We’ve got enough people that want to be vaccinated.”