LA County Health Official: COVID-19 Vaccine Deployment Will Be Equitable, High-Risk People To Receive Priority
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) -- As the first doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are expected to be administered across California as early as next week, Los Angeles County health officials are preparing for the massive undertaking of eventually vaccinating millions of residents.
The county's chief science officer said Thursday that the process will be equitable and based solely on health priorities.
"Equity is a fundamental principle here,'' Dr. Paul Simon said during an online media briefing. "We want to make sure all people have access, and that those that are at greatest risk either because of higher risk of exposure, or greater risk of severe illness because of chronic health conditions or other factors have more immediate access to the vaccine.''
As state and local officials have already said, Simon echoed the sentiment that the first doses of the vaccine will be strictly used for healthcare workers and residents of assisted living facilities.
The county is anticipating receiving almost 83,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine once the FDA gives its approval, which would be enough for just over 41,o00 people.
After the initial doses, Simon said the county expects to receive close to 250,000 more doses the following week and another 150,000 the week after that. Beginning in 2021, weekly deliveries of up to 250,000 doses are anticipated.
Once all healthcare workers and longterm care staff and residents are vaccinated, "essential workers" and people with severe risk of illness would be next in line.
However, Simon said that officials may still need to debate who is considered "at risk."
"That probably is going to become an important consideration when we really start to roll things out -- when we move beyond the highest-risk groups into groups where the risks may be a little bit more uncertain or there are larger areas of gray,'' he said. "And there, I think, we will do our best to prioritize, be as transparent as possible. I don't think we're going to be doing validation checks with each person as they float through the line, so I think there is sort of an honor system to some degree. But we will do everything possible to make sure we are doing this in an equitable manner, tending to the risks and making sure that we maximize the benefits.''
Simon added that no elected officials will have advanced priority to the vaccine, unless they fall into a high-risk category.
Residents should expect some restrictions to remain in place over the coming months, as the timeline for when the general public will be vaccinated is not clear at this time.
"I am very concerned,'' he said of the county's current case surge and burgeoning hospitals. "I've worked in public health for 30-plus years. I've never been more concerned than I am right now.
"And so we're not even close to being able to move back out (of restrictions),'' he said. "I think over the next several months we'll get a better understanding of when we can begin to open things up. We'll get a better understanding of how well the vaccine works in the real world. How well it works in a clinical trial... is different than how well it works sometimes in the real world.''
Simon said that in order for the county to make an eventual return to normalcy and move toward her immunity, people will have to agree to get vaccinated.
"We recognize many folks have concerns about the vaccines and may be hesitant to be vaccinated,'' Simon said. "As we implement the county plan to vaccinate literally millions of Angelenos, it will be critically important that we address this vaccine hesitancy with accurate, understandable, culturally sensitive and linguistically appropriate information, relying on trusted community leaders to help deliver these messages.''
(© Copyright 2020 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. City News Service contributed to this report.)