Los Angeles County public health officials on Thursday, Sept. 23, said the county’s vaccination network is ready to immediately begin offering Pfizer booster shots to people 65 and older and to those most vulnerable to COVID-19, pending imminent approval from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The federal agency on Thursday was on the cusp of such approval after a CDC committee green-lit a third dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine for those 65 and older who have been fully vaccinated, for those living in long-term care hubs and for for those considered vulnerable to the disease. The extra dose would be given once they are at least six months past their last Pfizer shot.
“We are ready to move once we get that approval from CDC,’ said Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer. “We’ll be ready to go.”
The CDC’s director, Rochelle Walensky, is expected to approve the recommendation within days, now that the CDC and FDA advisory panels have signed off the Pfizer vaccine as a booster. The extra dose would be given once they are at least six months past their last Pfizer shot.
“Our residents and our workers will be able to get those boosters,” said Ferrer.
But officials stressed that they are not yet for everyone, only the most vulnerable to the disease whose first pair of jabs were the Pfizer vaccine. The efficacy and safety of the Moderna and Johnson & Johnson vaccines were still being studied and will need to pass through the same regulatory scrutiny.
Deciding who else might get one was far tougher. While there is little evidence that younger people are in danger of waning immunity, the panel offered the option of a booster for those ages 18 to 49 who have chronic health problems, were vaccinated prior to April 1, and want one.
The FDA’s amended Emergency Use Authorization included people between 18 and 65 who work in settings where that increase their chances of exposure to the virus. But the CDC panel stopped short of adding that group.
Ferrer said L.A. County Public was waiting for guidance from the CDC on whether that group will be eligible. That guidance could come by Friday, she said.
If and when Walensky signs off on the CDC panel’s recommendation, Ferrer said the county’s network of vaccinators will begin accepting eligible groups via appointments at one of the 1,300 sites through the state’s MyTurn system.
You can also make appointments at pharmacies and clinics, as well as 400 county mobile vaccination teams. There also several walk-in sites, which you can find through vaccinatelacounty.com.
You’ll need your vaccination card, a photo of it, or a digital record of it, showing you were jabbed with the Pfizer vaccine, along with attesting that you are in an eligible group.
People immmunized with either Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccines will not yet be eligible for the vaccine, pending regulatory review. Ferrer urged patience, noting that the Moderna vaccine appears to be holding up better than the others anyway.
Ferrer discouraged “mixing and matching” — that is, getting a Pfizer vaccine, if you were jabbed with either of the other two companies’ shots.
“I can definitely relate to the concern of wondering should you go ahead and mix and match.,” Ferrer said. But she added: “If you’re not in that group, and you think it’s really important to get a booster, please talk to your primary care doctor about what your concerns are.”
Ferrer emphasized that the county has plenty of capacity to handle the demand. Officials say there are 420,000 people in L.A. County who will qualify. With an ability to give 130,000 doses a day, the local infrastructure is prepared, she said.
While demand for boosters will be robust, demand for initial shots has all but come to a trickle, Ferrer said, continuing to sound a cautionary note as the region moves into the colder months, where the virus could flourish.
As it stands, 59% of the county’s total population of 10.3 million people have been vaccinated. And that’s not enough to stave off future cycles of surges, and potential variants, Ferrer said.
“The number of people being newly vaccination each week is actually decreasing,” Ferrer. “It indicates a sustained slowing in our vaccination progress. Not everyone who eligible for a vaccine is getting vaccinated.”
Despite the slugging first- and second-dose demand for jabs, officials were encouraged by falling case and hospitalization rates.
The county’s cases per 100,000 for the past seven days, which had fallen to 86, also was good enough to allow the county to drop from the CDC’s “high transmission” risk status to the less riskier “substantial transmission.” The CDC’s indicators run from “Low Transmission” (0 to 9.99 cases per 100,000 over 7 days) to “High Transmission” (greater than 100 cases per 100,000 over 7 days).
The number of hospitalizations in the county held steady at 991, a promising sign that the number was below 1,000 for the first time since July.
On the schools front, both student and staff cases continue to drop from a mid-August peak. In the week ending Aug. 22, there were 2,795 students and 410 staff members countywide who tested positive for the coronavirus. Last week, 928 students and 136 staff members tested positive.
Comparing those same two weeks, the number of close contacts dropped from 7,459 to 4,996 for students — after peaking at nearly 11,000 in one of the intervening weeks — and from 452 to 44 for staff.
While the overall number of cases in schools has decreased, the number of school outbreaks — defined as three or more epidemiologically linked cases — has risen slightly from eight the week ending Sept. 11 to 11 the following week. Ferrer attributed that rise to more schools having been opened two or more weeks now.
“Given that more than 3,000 schools are now open, these numbers remain impressively low,” Ferrer said.
Although most outbreaks have occurred in elementary school or youth sports, the county saw two outbreaks in middle schools last week.
Ferrer said the overall drops were a testament to people adhering to ramped up measures such as masking and vaccination requirements. And that’s why Ferrer said the county continues revise health orders amid a climate where many might ask why, if the numbers were moving in the right direction.
“These are reasonable questions,” Ferrer said. But she said it’s because of such measure that the numbers were moving in the right direction, and that why officials have taken a proactive approach, rather than wait for the next surge.
She compared L.A. County to such places as Texas or Florida, where state leaders have moved to ban mask and vaccine requirements. There, she noted caseloads and mortality rates were three to five times the numbers seen in L.A. County.
“Different case and death rates aren’t just happening to us. They are a product of the collective actions we are taking,” she said.
Still, the daily numbers continued their sobering toll. Thirty two deaths were reported on Thursday, bringing the county’s total to 25,942. The 1,900 new cases reported brought the total to 1,449,923.
Staff writer Linh Tat and the Associated Press contributed to this report
