LA County COVID vaccination sites will be temporarily shut down as of Friday morning, as the county is facing a major shortfall of vaccine doses. County health officials report that the sites will be closed for at least two days, starting Friday, as they work to acquire more vaccine doses.
The closures of five city-run vaccination centers speaks to the huge demand for the vaccine in LA County. Populous regions like LA, New York and Chicago have all experienced huge demand for the vaccine, with people eager to end the pandemic and return to normal life. However, bottlenecks in the vaccine production and distribution effort have seriously kneecapped the rollout.
The Mayor Describes Uneven Distribution
LA Mayor Eric Garcetti has described the city’s vaccine allotments as hard to predict and variable. This week, he noted, the city got only 16,000 doses, barely more than it has been administering daily on average. Last week, the city got a whopping 90,000 last week, and 29,000 two weeks ago. The mayor insisted that anyone who has received their first dose in the city will get their second dose.
Astonishingly, the city has administered nearly 300,000 doses already, some 98 percent of the vaccines they’ve been allotted. The demand for the vaccines in the city is enormous, with all five city-run centers slammed daily by people seeking inoculation.
“It is only fair that LA receives a steady supply to meet this moment,” Garcetti noted.
Virus Finally Abates in US
Thanks to a combination of social distancing, mask-wearing and vaccination, the US is finally seeing COVID cases fall off somewhat. Health experts have noted that, while this is encouraging, it’s not time to bust out the champagne yet. Indeed, there is a long way to go in the effort to beat the virus.
Firstly, experts believe that around 70 percent of Americans will need to be vaccinated to even start thinking about relaxing guidelines around things like concerts and sporting events. Without setting up “vaccinated-only” events, hitting that high threshold will be necessary for public safety.
And, once people are vaccinated, they’re probably not good to stop wearing masks right away. There are still data points we’re missing: can the vaccinated population spread the disease? Can they get a asymptomatically sick and not realize it? There are simply too many variable to play fast and loose right now. In the meantime, experts are encouraging Americans to hunker down for the recovery effort as we begin the long road back to normal.
