San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
St. Helena clinic a shot in the arm
Collaborative effort vaccinates vineyard workers, others
Glen Newhart strode, jubilant and almost giddy, between rows of retired doctors and nursing students pumping coronavirus vaccines into nearly 200 vineyard workers on Thursday.
Two weeks ago, this vaccination clinic at Napa Valley College’s St. Helena campus didn’t exist. Newhart, the president and CEO of the St. Helena Hospital Foundation, helped birth the clinic out of a “crazy” Friday afternoon of phone calls.
In just four days, the foundation pivoted from testing to fundraising $5,000 a day for supplies and a couple medical workers. With help from the county and community, it also found more volunteers and secured the site donated by the college.
On the first day the clinic opened, one elderly woman burst into tears in relief, Newhart said.
“They just feel like the last year they’ve been outrunning this invisible enemy, trying to do everything they can, and for them this feels like the first step on offense,” Newhart said.
The clinic, which is giving hundreds of shots a day, is an unorthodox collaboration among the county health department, firefighters, police officers, volunteers, vintners, venture capitalists and the foundation, the philanthropic arm of the local hospital run by Adventist Health. The largely privately funded effort is likely easier in St. Helena, encircled by worldfamous wineries, than in a poorer commu
nity, but the organizers believe the model can be replicated across the state.
“Everything you see here is powered by philanthropy,” Newhart said. “The perception is that Napa is a very affluent county, and it is, but there is also extreme poverty ... Our mission is to not leave anybody behind.”
The only catch: The clinic, like every other across the country, is facing a vaccine shortage when the need is most acute. In Napa County, ICU capacity was at 5% on Friday; last week, it was down to zero. The virus has rippled through the workforce of the region’s critical wine industry, hitting some undocumented workers toiling nonstop through the pandemic and wildfires.
When California set a goal to vaccinate 1 million people in 10 days, Napa County rushed to ready people and places to ramp up shots. The county, with a population of 138,000 people, has now administered more than 14,000 doses through two countyrun locations and the clinic at the college. That’s a higher rate than other local counties. More than 30,000 Napa County residents have signed up on a county website to get notified when they’re eligible to get a shot.
Supply is already dwindling: Napa County only has appointments scheduled until Tuesday, with uncertainty beyond that, spokeswoman Janet Upton said Wednesday. The distribution of doses across the state has been sluggish, with empty promises from the previous federal administration about how many doses of vaccine are available and a halting rollout for most of California’s supply. Meanwhile, the virus continues to kill.
Alfredo Pedroza, chairman of the Napa County Board of Supervisors, said at the clinic Thursday that partnering with the private sector has been critical and that communities with the infrastructure should be rewarded with necessary vaccines.
“When we have a community that mobilized so quickly, there’s a lot of frustration that happens at the local level of why would we need to cancel vaccine clinics, which may be the scenario for us next week. Those are the questions we’re asking the state,” he said. “We’re all in this together, this is not about fingerpointing, this is about working together to get vaccines to communities that are ready and able to distribute.”
By the time the clinic opened at 10 a.m., more than 60 vineyard workers with appointments were waiting in line. Inside, a mix of Spanish and English echoed across the sunfilled courtyard.
“It feels like a party,” said Fabio Maia, a chaplain at St. Helena Hospital, as he directed people at the door to registration. Each person was greeted by a volunteer, who took them to a chair inside to fill out paperwork and get a shot from a health care worker, then sit for 15 minutes to monitor for allergic reactions.
Marianne Scerri and Margaret Mangan, 66yearold best friends who watched their kids grow up together in Calistoga schools, stood side by side in blue scrubs, masks and face shields draining vials of Moderna vaccines into syringes. Scerri, a retired nurse practitioner, signed up to volunteer at a vaccine clinic after the county sent out an emergency alert seeking health care workers to give shots last week. Mangan volunteered on her day off as a nurse at St. Helena Hospital, where she’s worked for 32 years and finished vaccinating her coworkers.
Mangan already got her two doses and Scerri received one, with her next scheduled for early February. They can’t wait to spend time with their families again — it was Scerri’s granddaughter’s second birthday Thursday — and give out as many shots as they can.
“This is so exciting,” Mangan said. “I just want to be able to live again.”
“It feels fabulous,” Scerri said. “I do really believe that until we get everyone vaccinated, we’re not going to get back to normal . ... there are lots of people to get out here and do this, we just need the vaccines.”
Beside them with a clipboard signing up patients was Robin McGuire, 64. She lives across the street from the college and came over to cheer on her neighbors over 75 getting shots on the first day. She volunteered to help with paperwork and got pulled in, getting her own first shot that day. She’s looking forward to hugging her six grandchildren and two greatgrandkids after she gets the next in early February. For now, the retired science teacher and flight attendant is helping at the clinic.
“It’s a great day, José!” McGuire whooped as she raised her arms at José Garcia, a worker at Renteria Vineyard Management, after she signed him up for his shot Thursday.
The clinic expanded last week to teachers and vineyard workers, who are within the current tier prioritized by the state, although not many other counties have started giving them shots yet. Carina De La Cruz, 39, a supervisor at Renteria, said she was surprised to get called Tuesday to get a vaccine. She waited in line for three hours
Thursday before getting her shot. The widowed mother of two is longing for a return to normalcy.
“It’s very hard, but we have to,” she said about working full time while homeschooling her kids last year.
Richard Allen, vice president of viticulture and winemaking at Rombauer Vineyards, brought 17 of his oldest and highestrisk workers to get shots and received one himself. COVID19 social distancing protocol has made it harder and less efficient to work, and people have a high level of anxiety, he said.
“Hopefully, it will bring that level of anxiety down, and, hopefully, life will start to return to normal,” Allen said.
At a peak last week, the clinic was giving out 550 doses a day. By Thursday, the number dropped to 190. On Friday, it bounced back up to 320, including about 260 teachers who were vaccinated. The clinic errs on the side of overbooking appointments and then canceling them, with no shots going to waste, Newhart said. On Thursday, around 50 people waiting in line were turned away when doses ran out at noon.
Local venture capitalist Joe Schoendorf, who spearheaded the effort to raise around $100,000 from vintners and the community on the social network Nextdoor to keep the clinic running for a month, said vaccine supply, not money, is the problem.
“California is the No. 1 tech place in the United States, our economy is the fifth largest in the whole world, there’s no reason we shouldn’t be the first in distributing this,” Schoendorf said. “My goal is to simply help our local government get connected with the right people in Silicon Valley to fix the problem.”
With vaccine supply uncertain, so is the fate of the pandemic — and Americans’ lives. President Biden, who said his top priority is tackling the pandemic, pledged to give 100 million shots in his first 100 days.
“We are hopeful,” Pedroza said. “Our residents demand answers.”