Logistical hurdles and debates about fairness have bogged down the state’s vaccination campaign, leading to widespread frustration
In late January, 38-year-old Bao Vo had a daily routine: Every day, the downtown Los Angeles resident logged onto Orange County Health Care’s scheduling website for COVID-19 vaccinations to check if there was a spot available for his 71-year-old mother. He checked the website when he got up in the morning, again at lunchtime, and twice more after work and before bed.
“Nothing much to report,” he told me last Tuesday. Last he checked, more than 300,000 residents in Orange County were still waiting to schedule their first vaccine appointment: “Yeah, my hopes are kind of tempered down a little bit.”
Under California’s current guidelines, healthcare workers, long-term care facility staff and residents, and state residents aged 65 or over are now eligible for vaccines. But the state’s vaccine delivery system has so far been sluggish and inefficient. So far, California has only distributed 3.3 million of its 5.7 million vaccine doses, or 58 percent—one of the nation’s slowest rollouts in COVID-19 vaccine delivery. When vaccines first began shipping out in December, Californians cheered with relief, wearied from months of lockdowns and pandemic anxiety. Now, many in the state are frustrated by an administrative logjam that has delayed what they see as a lifeboat to recovery.
