CALIFORNIA’S VACCINE ROLLOUT IS FAR TOO SLOW

California was the first state in the nation to shut down during the pandemic, winning Gov. Gavin Newsom well-deserved nationwide acclaim for fast action to keep people safe. In recent months, an ill-advised outing at a three Michelin-star restaurant, breathtaking increases in the state’s COVID-19 caseload and the slow rollout of vaccinations approved last month has put him on the defensive.

Incredibly, however, it wasn’t until this week that Newsom grasped how poorly the state was doing with the rollout so crucial to a resumption of everyday activity. It was only then that state officials broadened those eligible to receive inoculations — which have a short shelf life once they are taken out of freezers — after shots had to be thrown away when some health-care workers declined injections. The Los Angeles Times reported the state never developed a plan on what to do with leftover doses.

But the problems with logistics go far beyond that. Data Friday from a Bloomberg News website tracking the vaccine campaign showed California had administered just 25 percent of the 2.3 million vaccines it had been provided — worse than the national average and far worse than the most efficient states (Connecticut, West Virginia, South Dakota and North Dakota). Meanwhile, in Israel, officials who planned ahead have been administering all vaccines in hand the day they are received.

Newsom vowed Friday that California would speed up vaccinations. But he isn’t displaying enough urgency. Who is? President-elect Joe Biden. His aides said Thursday that he would immediately distribute all vaccines to states as soon as the federal government received them. Locally, UC San Diego Health in partnership with the county announced a plan to vaccinate at least 5,000 people a day in a Petco Park parking lot starting Monday.

So progress looms. But there needs to be a reckoning on why the state got off to such a weak start in vaccinating its residents during a health emergency.