The decision by state and county officials to prioritize Californians 65 and older delayed vaccinations for thousands of farmworkers for several weeks as infections began spreading, prompting growers and doctors to step in to fill the void.
When Monterey County finally reached out to say they had a batch of up to 1,500 vaccine doses for farmworkers, Valadez said no thanks.
“It’s all good,” Valadez wrote to Elsa Jimenez, Monterey’s director of health, in an emailon March 22. “No need to update any further.” In a follow-up interview, Valadez called the state-provided doses “almost a moot point.” They were already running their vaccination site exclusively for farmworkers so they didn’t need them.
Monterey
California
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Coachella-valley
Fresno
Central-valley
Monterey-county
Tulare-county
Riverside-county
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Californians
David-rodriguez