The Board of Supervisors’ Government Audit and Oversight Committee on Thursday praised recent strides made by the city to vaccinate residents against COVID-19 but also called for more transparency around the process.
During its meeting, the committee unanimously approved an emergency ordinance requiring the city’s Department of Public Health to prepare a more robust mass vaccination plan and to make public information like the number of vaccines available.
The emergency ordinance will now move to the Board of Supervisors for a full vote — expected to happen at the board’s upcoming Tuesday meeting.
This comes just as the city announced the launch of its second mass vaccination site at Moscone Center and a new website, www.sf.gov/getvaccinated. In addition, the city earlier this week opened two smaller vaccination sites — one at San Francisco State University and another in the Mission District.
Supervisor Matt Haney, who authored the emergency ordinance, commended the recent launches but said there’s still room for improvement.
“When we look at surrounding counties, there are clearly ways where we can improve our administration, our communication, and transparency. Each of us (supervisors) has a responsibility to support this work and as a legislative body we are all getting questions from panicked and confused constituents and we have a responsibility to make sure that they receive support and answers,” he said.
According to Dr. Naveena Bobba, San Francisco Department of Public Health’s Deputy Director of Public Health, the city has administered over 110,000 doses of the vaccine across all health providers thus far. Of that number, less than one-fourth account for second doses of the vaccine.
Bobba said while SFDPH and its health provider partners are trying to administer doses as fast as possible, supplies remain extremely limited and information about when and how many future doses will arrive is not being relayed in time by state officials.
“We are trying to get shots into arms. The state had come out with an earlier recommendation to use 50 percent of your second doses, but I will say this is a tricky game because it’s not necessarily (guaranteed) that you’re going to get your second doses and I know some counties have struggled with that,” she said. “We need to be careful because the last thing we want to do is to say in three weeks, ‘we don’t have your second dose, I’m sorry.'”
Per state guidelines, the vaccine is first being given to health care workers and people 65 and older. But, according to Bobba, the state does give counties some discretion about when they can move past the first phase and begin administering it to other groups like first responders, educators, child care workers and people who work in the food and agriculture industry.
“In San Francisco, we have vaccinated about 21 percent of those over 65, and that right now is probably not enough coverage to really ensure that we’re protecting that vulnerable population,” she said. “As vaccine becomes more available, as appointments start to open up and they’re not getting filled with those over 65, we can start making those shifts. But we’re just not there yet.”