San Benito County faces vaccine shortage
SAN BENITO COUNTY, Calif. (KION) San Benito County faces another challenge when it comes to the number of vaccinations that can be administered.
“We want people to understand is we need our fair share of vaccines,” said San Benito District 1 Supervisor Mark Medina.
The state recently made the decision to give 40% of all vaccine doses to 25% of most underserved communities. San Benito County does not have any zip codes eligible for the equity effort.
“We're asking the governor to re-look at what he has done,” said Medina. “Because what we need is we need fair and equity equitable treatment when it comes to these vaccines. And definitely, we aren't receiving that.”
San Benito Health Officer Dr. David Ghilarducci said about 11,500 doses have been administered for San Benito County residents. About 17% of all eligible adults in the county and just 53% of the prioritized 65 and over group have had at least one dose.
"So that's really held us back,” said Dr. Ghilarducci. “And we've estimated how long it would take for us to get to 100% of our eligible adults. And that would be on May 6 of 2022. So, yeah, it's shocking. That, which just tells us our rate is so much slower."
According to the Los Angeles Times coronavirus vaccination tracker, San Benito is the 45th county out of 58 counties in total vaccinations administered. The county has administered 11,166 doses. Things are hoping to speed up with the new Johnson and Johnson vaccine but few doses have been delivered so far.
Dr. Ghilarducci said giving 40% of all vaccine doses to 25% of most underserved communities is a great idea overall. But they’re worried this will set them back even more.
"I think it could even slow down our rate of vaccination even more,” said Dr. Ghilarducci. “Because if we get fewer vaccines, it'll take us even longer to get through. But it's just not acceptable that it's going to take us until May of next year to be done."
Another concern is the growing season, the Central Coast counties are expecting to see thousands of seasonal agricultural workers and would need to have robust supplies to handle that group as well.
“We're asking for our fair share and that's all,” said Dr. Ghilarducci. “And so we hope that that's corrected"
On Wednesday, county supervisors agreed to bring back a resolution for consideration calling for fairness in the state's distribution of COVID-19 vaccines because the county has received fewer doses per-capita than most other counties.
