Vaccines go mobile to keep seniors from slipping through the cracks
A mobile strike team is bringing vaccines to some of Northern California’s most vulnerable residents along with a message: This is how you avoid dying from covid-19.
So far, that message has been met with both nervous acceptance and outbursts of joy from a population that has been ravaged by the disease. One 68-year-old pastor, who lives in a racially diverse, low-income senior housing complex, rolled down his sleeve after his shot and said he wants to live to see 70 just to spite the government.
The team of county nurses and nonprofit workers is targeting Contra Costa County residents who are eligible for covid vaccines but have been left out: residents of small assisted-living facilities that haven t yet been visited by CVS or Walgreens, and occasionally people who live in low-income senior housing. The retail pharmacy giants have a federal government contract to administer vaccines in most long-term care
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Assisted living faces a similar threat, but is a lower priority for the vaccine.
• 7 min read
Biden unveils national COVID-19 strategy: masks, testing, accelerated vaccine rollout
President Joe Biden called for expanded COVID-19 testing, accelerated vaccine distribution and preparation for possible future pandemics. Biden called the COVID-19 response “a wartime undertaking.”Paul Bersebach/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images
As the COVID-19 vaccine rollout reaches residents of nursing homes across the country, long-term care advocates remain concerned that many of the nation s most vulnerable citizens who are living in similar, high-risk congregate settings are being left to wait.
Amina Khan, and it’s
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Public health officials have been scrambling to step up their vaccination game by getting more doses out of vials and into arms. But even as they open up access to the shots, new data show they’ve failed to quickly get the lifesaving doses to the vast majority of the state’s most vulnerable population
State data obtained by The Investigative Unit shows about 80% of California long-term care facilities partnering with CVS and Walgreens to vaccinate seniors.