Written by Hannah Schmidtler<\/p>\n
Despite high hopes, California\u2019s Covid-19 vaccine rollout has fallen behind schedule. So far, only thirty-five percent of California\u2019s total doses have been administered. San Diego has administered 454,000 of its 1.3 million doses. Newsom addressed the fact that the vaccine rollout has fallen behind schedule in a press conference. He optimistically pointed out that the beginning is always the hardest. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cLike a flywheel, the first 10, 15 days we\u2019re going to slowly start building pace, then you\u2019re going to start seeing more rapid distribution,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n Newsom also stressed the importance of administering the vaccine as efficiently as possible.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe want to see 100% of what\u2019s received immediately administered in people\u2019s arms, and so that\u2019s a challenge,\u201d he said during a briefing. \u201cIt\u2019s a challenge across this country \u2014 it\u2019s a challenge, for that matter, around the rest of the world. But that\u2019s not an excuse.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n California expects a shipment of an additional 611,500 doses in the next few weeks. To speed up distribution, Newsom’s budget, which will be submitted to the state legislature this week, includes $300 million to support vaccination efforts across the state.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n One of the biggest hurdles the vaccine rollout has to overcome is waste. Packaging of both vaccines currently authorized in the US creates difficulty when it comes to the vaccine’s shelf life. Each vaccine vial contains multiple doses. Once the vial is opened all the doses in that vial must be quickly administered or they will expire.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Dr. Mark Ghaly, California\u2019s Health and Human Services secretary, addressed this issue explaining that he is continuing to work on organization so that vaccinators know who to give those remaining doses to. The vaccine is being distributed first to frontline healthcare workers as well as those in long term care facilities.<\/span><\/p>\n The goal, Ghaly added on Monday, is \u201creally to encourage the continued sort of drumbeat of getting people vaccinated but while making sure that they\u2019re still doing as much as they can to target the most vulnerable, the most exposed, those who\u2019ve been prioritized.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Written by Hannah Schmidtler Despite high hopes, California\u2019s Covid-19 vaccine rollout has fallen behind schedule. So far, only thirty-five percent of California\u2019s total doses have been administered. San Diego has administered 454,000 of its 1.3 million doses. Newsom addressed the fact that the vaccine rollout has fallen behind schedule in a press conference. He optimistically…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4854,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4984","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n