People 65 and older to get priority for vaccine

Online system will be set up to alert seniors when they are eligible

In an effort to speed the rollout of the COVID-19 vaccine to people most at risk of dying, California state officials on Wednesday announced that people 65 and older will be eligible to receive the vaccine sooner than had previously been planned.

Under new guidelines from the California Department of Public Health, people in Phase 1A of the state’s tiered system — health care workers and nursing home residents — are still eligible to receive vaccines. After those people are given their shots, seniors 65 and older will be in the next group.

The state is setting up an online system to let people know when they are eligible to receive a vaccine, Newsom’s office announced, and how to register to receive a notification via email or text. That system is expected to launch next week.

A second state program, expected to come online several weeks after, will help counties, cities and others run mass vaccination events at stadiums, fairgrounds and other locations. It will allow eligible members of the public to schedule vaccination appointments at those events. People will also be able to go to their

doctor or pharmacy to receive the vaccine as more becomes available from the federal government, Newsom’s office said.

People also can contact their doctor’s office to find out when they are eligible, given that different providers have different amounts of the vaccine.

“There is no higher priority than efficiently and equitably distributing these vaccines as quickly as possible to those who face the gravest consequences,” Newsom said in a statement. “Individuals 65 and older are now the next group eligible to start receiving vaccines. To those not yet eligible for vaccines, your turn is coming. We are doing everything we can to bring more vaccine into the state.”

The change in policy comes one day after the federal government announced it was reversing course. The Department of Health and Human Services on Tuesday began recommending that states expand access to COVID-19 vaccines to everyone 65 and older to speed up a sluggish rollout.

The Trump administration had promised that 50 million doses would be administered nationwide by the end of January through Operation Warp Speed, its vaccine program. But through Tuesday, it had delivered only 25 million doses nationwide, and just under 9 million shots had been given, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The federal government’s complex priority system, ranked by occupation and risk, which California closely followed, has been widely viewed as too cumbersome and slow.

As of Monday in California, 2.46 million vaccine doses had been shipped to city and county health departments and large health care providers such as Kaiser Permanente, Sutter Health, Stanford Health, Dignity Health and the John Muir Health networks. But only about one-third of those — 816,673 vaccine doses — had been administered statewide.

“With our hospitals crowded and ICUs full, we need to focus on vaccinating Californians who are at highest risk of becoming hospitalized to alleviate stress on our health care facilities,” said Dr. Tomás Aragón, director of the California Department of Public Health and state public health officer.

There is no question that older Americans have been hit hardest by the pandemic. Of the 31,102 deaths in California since the disaster began last year, 75% have been people 65 and older, and 94% have been people 50 and older, according to state statistics.

“I think it’s a great idea,” Dr. George Rutherford, an epidemiologist at UC San Francisco, said of the new plan. “I’m pretty assured the vaccine manufacturers can ramp up to meet demand.”

But expanding the pool of people who can receive the vaccine is expected to raise new challenges. There are 6.6 million people older than 65 in California.

In Florida, after Gov. Ron DeSantis issued an executive order Dec. 23 saying anyone 65 and older could get the vaccine, along with health care workers, counties launched online registration websites. But they crashed due to a flood of interest. Phone lines set up for appointments were jammed. And seniors have sat all night in lawn chairs and cars outside hospitals, some of which announced they were administering the vaccines on a first-come, firstserved basis.

On Tuesday, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors voted 5-0 to require large health care providers such as Kaiser, Sutter, Stanford and Palo Alto Medical Foundation to produce written plans and timelines for COVID-19 vaccine distribution by Feb. 1.

“Time is of the essence,” said Santa Clara County Supervisor Joe Simitian. “We can’t afford to lose a month; we can’t afford to lose a week; we can’t afford to lose a single day.”

Santa Clara County asked state officials this week for 100,000 more vaccine doses but received just 6,000, said Santa Clara County Executive Dr. Jeff Smith.

“We have lots of physical capacity,” Smith said, “and not as much vaccine as we need.”

Under California’s tiered system, health care workers and people in assisted living facilities have first priority for vaccines, in Phase 1A. Seniors 75 and older had been in the next group — Phase 1B, Tier One — along with teachers, child care workers and agriculture industry workers. People 65 and older had been in the group after that, Phase 1B, Tier Two, along with transportation workers such as bus drivers, manufacturing workers and people in tight, risky settings such as jails and homeless camps.

By moving everyone 65 and older into Phase 1B, Tier One, California joins 23 other states. Alaska offers the vaccine to residents over age 55. Washington state is vaccinating people 50 to 69 who live in multigenerational households. West Virginia is vaccinating teachers and school staff over the age of 50.

What’s driving the changes nationally and statewide? A growing number of Americans are frustrated, said bioethicist Arthur Caplan of New York University’s Langone Medical Center.

“People are seeing too few vaccines in a tiny number of arms,” he said. “There is disappointment with the slow rollout.”

Also, there’s a perception that logistics, not limited supplies, are the problem, he added. By opening more sites — civic centers, sports stadiums and Walgreens lobbies — California can accommodate more vaccines.

“People are saying ‘I see other people getting vaccines in Florida or bribing their way to get them, and I’m 65 too or I’m high risk — so do something,’ ” Caplan said.