COVID good news from California

Vaccines enable progress in the fight against COVID

Last night I met a Sacramento woman who is a neurosurgeon but during the pandemic has heard a call to do something about equity in vaccine access. Her grass-roots effort to acquire and distribute vaccines in neighborhoods where early uptake was low has probably saved many lives. And not only the lives of those who received the vaccine: widespread immunity in the community reduces the circulation of SARS-CoV-2 (the virus that causes COVID-19), and that protects everyone.

I have good news from California: The contest isn’t over, but we’re winning.

First of all, the graphic above shows data from today’s NYT vaccine tracker. California is one of 12 US states to at least partially vaccinate 70% of adults. This has helped us greatly reduce cases and deaths, shown below:

California cases and deaths, June 4, 2021 (source: https://covid19.ca.gov/data-and-tools/#Data-models)

Progress has not been uniform. People with health and wealth have been more likely to get vaccinated. To serve and protect the vulnerable, California introduced Vaccine Equity metrics as a way to track progress in communities where overall health conditions are relatively poor. Zip codes were assigned to one of four quartiles from least to most healthy conditions. Data on vaccination in each of these groups is tracked, and the state can push greater resources where needed.

Unsurprisingly these health quartiles often correlate with race. I’ve heard some people object to, misinterpret, or flat-out reject the idea that special effort should be made to reach people of color–especially when vaccine doses were still scarce in the US. As a firm believer in Catholic social teaching (see: Option for the Poor and Vulnerable), I found this attitude disheartening. The good news is despite the challenges, things are going pretty well on the equity front thanks to private efforts like the one I mentioned, and public attention to the distribution of resources.

Here are the data from California: (source: https://covid19.ca.gov/vaccination-progress-data/ )

Equity of California vaccination

The first vaccine doses (outside of a clinical trial) were given in California on December 14, 2020. Most doses in those first weeks were reserved for health care workers, which explains the huge equity gap in the first days of January. But for months after, most doses were still going to people living in higher-health zip codes. Finally as we roll into June 2021, the gap has closed.

Here’s another view of the data, showing the cumulative effect. This is the percent of people age 12+ who have received at least one dose of any COVID vaccine in California, by health quartile zip code.

Populations in the poorest-health California neighborhoods are way behind the highest-health ones, but still >50% have at least one vaccine. Which, for comparison, is higher than the percentage in entire states (all health quartiles) of the American south:

Have you been vaccinated yet? Every American age 12 and up is now eligible.

In California, visit https://myturn.ca.gov/ to find appointments for a FREE vaccine near you.

Amy Rogers, MD, PhD, is a Harvard-educated scientist, novelist, journalist, and educator. Learn more about Amy’s science thriller novels, or download a free ebook on the scientific backstory of SARS-CoV-2 and emerging infections, at AmyRogers.com.