1.13.21 Press Conference Vaccine Update and Q&A

County of Santa Clara
January 13, 2021
Press Conference: COVID Vaccine Update

[Music]

Hilary Armstrong: County of Santa Clara to provide updates regarding distribution and eligibility for the COVID-19 vaccine in Santa Clara County. After the English and ASL portion of the press conference, we will move to Spanish press conference, and then we will have statements from the podium in Vietnamese, Chinese, and Tagalog. Thank you very much.

James Williams: Good afternoon. My name is James Williams. I'm county counsel for the County of Santa Clara and one of the directors of the County's Emergency Operations Center. I have a couple updates related to vaccination, which I know is really a main area of focus for many in our community right now, and it is incredibly exciting that we're in a place where there's continued vaccine distribution, and where the amount of vaccine is slowly beginning to increase.

As we shared with Board of Supervisors yesterday, the County's own health system has significantly been ramping up capacity for vaccine delivery and, because of that significant increase in capacity, i'm very pleased to share today, that the county health system is now open for vaccination for individuals age 75 and older. That's individuals aged 75 and older, can go now to sccFREEvax.org and schedule a vaccination. This is in addition to the continued vaccination of all eligible individuals in the State's Phase 1a, which is healthcare workers, so in addition to healthcare workers and residents and staff at long-term care facilities who have been being vaccinated to date, we are now also expanding eligibility for those 75 and older. In addition, other health care providers in Santa Clara County, such as Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Stanford Healthcare, and Kaiser are also soon going to be open for similar scheduling of individuals age 75 and older.

Here in Santa Clara County. In addition, I want to address some of the challenges that we've been having with people forwarding links to scheduling and sharing misinformation related to eligibility, that has resulted, unfortunately, in some people, from either out of county or people who are not eligible for vaccination, signing up through those forwarded links and then having to be turned away when they show up at sites or otherwise be told that their appointments are canceled. This is as a result of the structure of the state's scheduling system called PREPMOD, where, unfortunately, people have been able to bypass the County's sccFREEvax.org site, where we have the relevant screening information around who's eligible and instead directly share some scheduling links. When people are going and doing that, it's taking up slots that otherwise would be going to people who are eligible. We are checking eligibility and verifying eligibility, and so it's really important that people stop sharing that misinformation. We have asked the state and the state is making some fixes and changes to that system to hopefully eliminate that issue, which we know is being experienced in other counties, elsewhere, in the state, but again don't forward links around. There is really a very simple source of truth for vaccination here in Santa Clara County that is sccFREEvax.org, sccFREEvax.org. You can go from there, there are links to all of the providers, the county health system of course, but also links to how to schedule appointments from the other providers that are providing vaccination in Santa Clara County, such as Palo Alto Medical Foundation, Stanford Healthcare, and Kaiser.

In addition, we are hearing some rumors and other information about other just false vaccination information, being shared on social media or texts, or spreading around, and again, just want to remind folks, if you want the information about what is happening here in Santa Clara County go to sccFREEvax.org.

We know that there is some confusion, there's changing federal guidance almost daily. We expect that there'll be more changes from the federal government with a new federal administration coming in. We know that there are changes from the State, coming at us daily, changes in guidance updates on the website, different announcements coming out, but we, if you want to know what's actually happening on the ground, schedule appointments here in Santa Clara County, the best source of information is sccFREEvax.org. We are constrained by the vaccine supply that we have available here, locally, and as we continue to get more vaccine, we'll continue to move as quickly as we can, through eligible tiers, but this is where we are at right now, and we're going to continue to move, like I said as swiftly as possible. And it's actually delightful that so many people want to get vaccinated and want to get vaccinated so quickly, that's a good thing. And we are committed here locally to doing everything that we can to get um you know to get shots in arms, as we get doses here in the county. And with that, I'm open for questions.

Media question: Are um into a position where people 75 and up uh will be able to be vaccinated do you is there any anticipation about when people 65 and up, would be able to get vaccinated?

JW: yeah, so we're aware, obviously, of today's announcement from the state, saying that they're encouraging vaccination of those 65 and older. We hope to be in a position to do that, as well, as soon as we get more vaccine supply here, locally. One of the challenges for us, as a county, is that vaccine distribution is happening through many many different channels, so for example, the State directly allocates supply to, what they call, multi-county entities, like Palo Alto Medical Foundation and Kaiser. Those allocations don't come through the county, for instance. The federal government is directly allocating vaccine to CVS and Walgreens for vaccination of residents at long-term care facilities, for example, that's a federal program, so there's lots and lots of different uh avenues for distribution, and as soon as we have the supply here, we'll be able to expand further.

Media question: As far as you can tell, these text messages and emails that have circulated, allowing people to schedule appointments, who may not be eligible, does it appear that this is an effort for people to jump the line? or is this kind of a ... ?

JW: So the question was, you know, when we're seeing people forwarding the links around, is it an intentional effort to jump the line or is it as a result of something else? I you know i don't know, um you know, we don't know of course people's motivations per say, but based on some of the texts that we have seen forwarded to us, it looks like it's probably a combination of things. And I say that because I know, we've seen some messages that say things like hurry up quick, you know take these slots, which suggests, maybe an effort to jump the line, but we've also seen a lot of messages that that express just confusion uh or misunderstanding, uh and you know and that's that's uh not surprising, given how fluid a situation uh things have been in, with the changing federal and state guidance. So it's probably a combination of both.

Media question: (to low to hear the questions)

JW: I don't have exact numbers, but I think we're talking about over 100.

Media question: I have a question regarding the nurses, and this comes from Jessie Gary in a text, and he here's his question, "some nurses complain that their members are overworked and have too many patients, is there a plan to improve the nurse patient ratio, which the governor has decreased by allowing laborers?

JW: So the question was about nurses being overworked, and I think we've we've spoken at some length now about the situation in our hospitals. We are still in the midst of a very, very significant surge in our hospitals our ICU capacity, in particular, very low levels, and the percentage of patients in our ICUs and in our hospitals overall who have COVID is an increasingly large percentage, and these are individuals who require um you know significant level of care, and so it's not surprising to hear this concern. And that's exactly why we really urge all residents in the county to be staying at home, to the greatest extent possible, avoiding non-essential activities, and really strictly following the public health orders, because we are still, very much in the thick of the greatest surge in COVID that we have had, so far, this entire pandemic. And the best thing we can do, as a community, to help our nurses and help our hospitals is by following that public health, those public health orders strictly, always. That's what the best thing that we can do to help them out.

RR: abc

Media question: this is from an ABC reporter back up in San Francisco: can you tell us why people were able to get this link that was supposedly for doctors at the Berger auditorium? how they were able to get those appointments with that link?

JW: so the the um the way the sign up process works, is you go to sccFREEvax.org, there's a a form, a screening form, but then you do further sign up at a state through a state platform called Prepmod. People took those links for the State Prepmod extracted them and were forwarding them and sharing them on social media or by text. It's really unfortunate that people were doing that, we have asked the State to help resolve that issue, and some changes have already been made, but others are in progress, but really it's the affirmative action by folks who have chosen to pull that information, and then spread it, unfortunately spreading that misinformation. People need to go to sccFREEvax.org for an appointment here, in Santa Clara County.

Media question: and that website is open for public signups now?

JW: yes

RR: NBC

Media question: James, I'm sorry you touched on a little bit a little earlier, we're having a little trouble hearing you, can you give us an idea in terms of how the governor expanding to 65 year olds impacts the fact that you're already ahead of scheduled eagle to include 75 year olds? and now that you're handing the 65 year old, burden in terms of trying to meet that demand? and can you meet that demand?

JW: so the question is you know, now that the state's saying that they're encouraging expansion of eligibility to 65, we're announcing that we're open for people 75 and older you know what's the impact? uh the population in Santa Clara County that's 65 and older is quite quite significant, it's over 300,000, and and so we really need more vaccine supply. Right now we're open to those 75, and older that's a very high risk population. All of the different frameworks agree that that's a high-risk population that needs to get vaccinated right away, so we're open to ages 75 and older, not just for the county health system, but again PAMF, Stanford, Kaiser, and people should go to their provider to get vaccinated. And that's really important, by the way, people should go to their provider to get vaccinated, because like i mentioned earlier, the state is directly allocating vaccine to those providers like Kaiser and PAMP. But our limiting factor is really the number of vaccines, and so as that increases, we will be able to then increase our eligibility, as well.

Media question: how many vaccination shots or doses have you got available now? and would you be able to open up to some 65 year olds with your current supply? or can you not do it at all?

JW: no we we don't even yet have enough doses that have been received in the county, first doses to cover all of the healthcare workers in the county. now that being said, we're already opening up to further eligibility for a variety of reasons, but one is we want to make sure no slot goes unused, we want to make sure we get vaccine out the door as quickly as possible, but we have to balance that a little bit right, and make sure that we're actually going to have vaccine there and available. You know, we shared with the Board of Supervisors, yesterday that over 52,000 doses had already been delivered, first doses, in the county, from what we were able to know, from different health systems, and again we don't know what every health system has done so far. And i can share that today, as of today, the County's own system, in other words, the County itself, through its own clinics, has delivered over 31,000 doses of vaccine. That number continues to grow. We shared with the Board yesterday that we're on track to more than double the capacity to deliver vaccines, starting next week, and that's going to continue to grow from there. But what we don't know, and what we don't have visibility into, is how much vaccine itself is going to be coming to the county, and that's really a challenge.

Media question: so from my understanding it's going to be ... all the doses were ... ?

JW: that's correct, so right now people 75 and older can sign up, and as we get more vaccine we'll continue to open up.

Media question: (question to low to hear)

JW: we don't have a specific timeline, again, because we don't know when more vaccine will arrive to make that uh practicable, but we will, of course, let people know as soon as possible. And again the best place, for the public to find out what's going on, and to get the latest information is to go to sccFREEvax.org.

RR: Mercury News

Media question: um do you have any anticipated time when uh some of these large vaccination sites ... stadium, may be made available to people? and what is the ongoing interaction between the folks who operate those facilities, uh including the teams and any ownership groups and the county? uh it is the state ... ?

JW: yeah so the question was about mass vaccination sites. um So a couple a couple of things, one is with respect to the county health system itself, we continue to stand up additional sites uh across the county, and we're continuing to build that capacity out, and we shared i would refer to the presentation that would be made to the board that's available online that lists the sites and the capacity and the ramp up and talks about some of the capacity that's coming online for the county's own health system. In addition, we know that other providers in the county, like PAMF and Kaiser, are also working to expand their own sites including mass vaccination sites. Again they get direct allocation of vaccine, they actually have a huge percentage of the county's population, majority of the county's population, are patients of these other large systems, and so it's absolutely imperative that they be standing up sites, as well, and I know they're in conversations about securing some of these locations, and then of course, we are in continued conversation about expanding capacity from there even beyond, but uh we need the facts and supply. In addition to that, we understand the State is separately engaging in standing up uh sites, and i'll refer you to the State for questions about that, and then we'll see also what happens with the new federal administration. So i think there's going to be lots and lots of activity, there will be a lot of changes, we'll have to remain flexible and nimble, but the good news is, there's going to be more and more vaccine coming in, in the coming weeks.

Media question: (question to low to hear)

JW: well we require folks to sign in at the County sites. We require folks to sign an attestation under penalty of perjury that, you know they meet the eligibility criteria, so our expectation certainly is that people are doing so truthfully, and that they're being honest and forthcoming with, but is with information.

Media question: is there something beyond? do they have to show the documentation? or do they just have to say, "yes"? i mean if the answer is yes, i am in health care, is there any other verification beyond that?

JW: yeah it it depends on the you know the obviousness, we're not going people don't need to show up with a whole big portfolio of documentation. We're trying to get people vaccinated, right? The imperative here is we're trying to get people vaccinated, but you know if, if people are doing things that are obviously improper, we're going to call that out, and other than that, we expect people if there's as if they're signing something or penalty of perjury that's a crime, and you know i hope that people wouldn't be doing that, and if they are i'm sure the district attorney or others would follow up.

RR: Thank you NBC. one more bay city news for final question.

Media question: uh yeah is there a number of vaccines that the county gets that will trigger ... ?

JW: so the question is, is there a number of vaccines that would that would be a trigger? and the the the answer is, um the short answer is no, but we don't get advanced information on how much is coming in, and so and that situation is quite fluid. We know, for example, that the federal government and the incoming Biden administration has said that they're going to take a different approach to vaccine delivery. That may result in a lot more vaccine coming our way, of course, we then need to hear from the State, what that actually translates into here, for Santa Clara County. And again, we don't know what might be coming to Kaiser or PAMF or other systems directly, so um you know we're operating in an environment that's not only changing but that has very limited information, but our goal is to make sure that with what we can control, we're getting vaccine out as quickly as possible, and that we're making sure it's getting to those who are in the greatest need, so those are our priorities, and we're working around the clock to make that happen here in Santa Clara County.

RR: nbc for final question.

Media question: i just want to make sure that i'm not misunderstanding something that i thought had heard at the Board of Supervisors meeting, wasn't their account executive said that he had made a request for a certain number of shots and that the answer was actually far below? i think he was saying six figures, and they were saying literally six thousand?

JW: yes, so we did make a request on Sunday for a hundred thousand additional doses, and uh the State authorized an additional six thousand uh for the county.

RR: thank you all. we'll now go into the Spanish portion of the presentation. thank you, James.