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State Sen. Josh Becker joined city and county leaders on Monday to call on the federal and state governments to prioritize vaccines in communities like East Palo Alto, which have been hot spots for COVID-19 cases.
Only about 10% of the East Palo Alto community has received COVID-19 vaccines, while most surrounding cities have vaccinated 20% or more of their populations, said Becker, D-Menlo Park.
“This is a moment for history to right this wrong,” Becker said alongside local leaders in front of Cesar Chavez Elementary School in East Palo Alto.
Becker and David Canepa, president of the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, put hopes on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which the Food and Drug Administration approved on Saturday for emergency use, as an opportunity to more quickly inoculate places such as East Palo Alto.
The vaccine reportedly requires a single dose compared to the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, which require two shots.
“It’s going to be a game changer,” Canepa said of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.
So far, some of the few options available to East Palo Alto residents eligible to get vaccinated include temporary pop-up clinics. On Feb. 17, one clinic opened at the San Francisco International Airport and another opened at Jefferson High School in Daly City on Feb. 26. There are no daily vaccination sites available, Canepa said.
Days in which vaccination sites are open depend on availability of vaccine doses, Canepa added. He said he hopes to use mobile vaccination sites to open more locations in East Palo Alto.
For distribution planning, Canepa also suggested that cities need to know how many doses are available for up to three weeks in advance rather than on a week-by-week basis.
“An aggressive vaccination rollout is what the fight for racial equity and social justice is and looks like in 2021,” said East Palo Alto City Council member Antonio Lopez.
For months, East Palo Alto has been considered a COVID-19 hot spot. In September, the city’s positivity rate was three times higher than the rate in San Mateo County. City Manager Jaime Fontes said during the council’s Sept. 15 meeting that one of the reasons for the high rate of infection is the large number of in-person essential workers who live in the city.
East Palo Alto reported 1,425 cases for every 10,000 residents, according to the county’s COVID-19 cases by city dashboard, which tracks the spread of the virus and was last updated Feb. 26. That represents the third highest rate within San Mateo County after the communities of Pescadero and Colma.
As of Feb. 27, 153,963 county residents have received their first vaccine dose and 60,048 have received their second dose. The county population is 780,273.
Find comprehensive coverage on the Midpeninsula’s response to the new coronavirus by Palo Alto Online, the Mountain View Voice and the Almanac here.
