California pediatricians can bypass MyTurn as they vaccinate children
Barbara Feder Ostrov
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State officials will allow pediatricians to bypass their cumbersome vaccine management system in a move intended to speed COVID-19 vaccinations for children.
The decision comes as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize vaccines for children ages 12 to 15 as early as this week, which would add 2.1 million kids to the number of Californians eligible.
The move is a tacit recognition of the problems that the massive, $50 million MyTurn system poses for doctors and smaller medical groups wanting to immunize their patients.
Sami Gallegos, press secretary for California’s COVID-19 Vaccine Task Force, told CalMatters that pediatricians and other doctors who treat children will not be forced to use MyTurn to obtain their patients’ vaccines. But she added that the state health department has not yet determined how the doctors will receive the doses.
Cathedral City man accused of robbing Banning bank
City News Service
A 42-year-old man accused of holding up a Banning bank by pretending to have a gun concealed under his shirt was charged Wednesday with robbery.
Aaron Sterling Gefrerer of Cathedral City was arrested Saturday following a Banning Police Department investigation, with assistance from neighboring agencies.
Gefrerer is being held in lieu of $35,000 bail at the Smith Correctional Facility in Banning and is slated to make his initial court appearance Thursday at the Banning Justice Center.
According to police, at about 10:30 a.m. Saturday, the defendant approached a teller at the U.S. Bank branch in the 300 block of South Highland Springs Avenue, just south of Interstate 10, and handed her a note demanding money from the cash drawer.
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Demand for COVID-19 vaccines is slowing across most of California, but as traffic at vaccination sites eases, the vaccination rates across the state are showing wide disparities.
In Santa Clara County, home to Silicon Valley, nearly 67% of residents 16 and older have had at least one dose as of Wednesday, compared with about 43% in San Bernardino County, east of Los Angeles. Statewide, about 58% of eligible residents have received at least one dose.
The differences reflect regional trends in vaccine hesitancy and resistance that researchers have been tracking for months, said Dean Bonner, associate survey director at the Public Policy Institute of California, a nonpartisan think tank.