Mayor Garcetti Shuts Down LA Vaccination Sites
Los Angeles is temporarily shutting down several city vaccination sites in the coming days after it burned through its limited allocation of first doses for Moderna’s vaccine.
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti made the announcement during a briefing Wednesday, noting that the city distributed 98% of all doses received. The closure will affect sites at Dodgers Stadium and the other four non-mobile vaccination sites on Friday and Saturday, with reopenings eyed for Tuesday or Wednesday.
"This week we only received 16,000 new doses. 16,000," Garcetti said during the briefing. "That’s about the number of doses we give out every single day. That is unacceptable."
The week’s allocation is a reduction of 90,000 doses from the week prior, the mayor said.
However federal officials involved with the COVID-19 response struck an optimistic tone this week, with the Biden administration claiming vaccine supply has increased from 8.6 million doses delivered to states weekly, to 11 million, or a 28% total increase across the first three weeks. Garcetti said that overall increase has yet to trickle down to Los Angeles.
My wife said, "Garcetti must not like Newsom," since the problems with vaccine distribution are among the issues behind the Recall Newsom campaign. Garcetti might almost be characterized as questioning the credibility of CDC statistics, too.But the problems in California, as I've posted recently, go beyond a single shortage of a single vaccine in a single week. The state has generally announced that everyone 65 and older is "eligible" to receive the vaccine, but actually setting up an appointment is effectively impossible, and anecdotal accounts suggest at least some vaccination sites apply a de facto racial test to applicants.
Gov Newsom has been oddly passive in response to reports that the recall petition will easily surpass the 1.5 million signature requirement to place it on the ballot. It's hard not to assume that if he were even to express a credible interest in breaking the vaccination logjam, he could beat the recall. Last summer, he had daily press onferences on COVID. Why can't he simply resume those and at least seem to want to solve the issues?
Part of the problem appears to be the party line: things are great! Everyone's eligible! We're in COVID paradise! Here's Dr Fauci:
As vaccine demand continues to far outpace supply, the nation's leading infectious disease expert made a stunning prediction. "By the time we get to April, that would be what I call for lack of better wording, open season. Namely, virtually everybody and anybody in any category can start to get vaccinated," Dr. Anthony Fauci said.
But vaccination sites still need doses and that's a big problem for Maryland. "We need more damn vaccines," Governor Larry Hogan said. "We have no control whatsoever over this supply problem."
The CBS story at the link is skeptical, at leaat by implication:Mr. Biden announced the U.S. had just signed contracts for 100 million more doses each of the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines. The vaccines would arrive by the end of July, he said.
So Fauci, the administration's front man for COVID, says everyone will be "eligible" by April, but Biden says there won't be supply before July. This sounds a little like life in the former Soviet bloc -- everyone's "eligible" for a car and an apartment, they just need to get on the 16-year waiting list. People didn't buy that.If Newsom and Biden were serious public figures, Fauci, who contradicts himself weekly, would be out of the picture, and both Newsom and Biden would be giving daily updates. Even the media seems less willing to cover for them.
