 | | People waiting at the Petco Park parking lot in downtown San Diego to receive the vaccine for Covid-19 on Jan. 27.Ariana Drehsler for The New York Times |
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On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom took his vaccination road show to San Diego, where he and local officials held a news conference highlighting the state's progress from Petco Park, where the state's first mass vaccination site has been inoculating an average of 5,000 people per day. |
"These sites are important and impactful," he said. Still, he said, "not only do we want fast and efficient, we want equitable distribution. We know we have work to do." |
The vaccine rollout is a pretty high-stakes effort for the Newsom administration — and not just because getting lots of the state's some 40 million residents vaccinated is critical to stopping the spread of the virus. |
For Mr. Newsom, widespread frustration with what Californians say has been a confusing and piecemeal vaccination campaign is also a major political liability. |
So the governor hasn't been shy about highlighting the magnitude of the challenge in the state, the nation's most populous, and has blamed California's relatively slow progress early in the process on delays in data reporting, which he vowed his administration would fix. |
The Times has been tracking the vaccination effort across the country for weeks, including with a state-by-state ranking. I asked my colleague Amy Schoenfeld Walker, who has been working on the tracker, to explain a bit more about what it can tell us about California's rollout. |
The governor has on multiple occasions referenced how California ranks among states in the vaccine rollout, and he's said that part of the reason the state initially ranked near the bottom of the list was data-reporting delays. Can you explain how the ranking is put together? |
The states report vaccinations to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the C.D.C. posts this information daily on its website. There can be reporting delays between health care providers, states and the C.D.C. |
Many states, including California, also have their own vaccination websites, which don't always match the C.D.C.'s data because of these reporting lags. The Times uses data from the C.D.C. on our vaccine tracker to provide a more apples-to-apples comparison among jurisdictions. |
How should people think about where California ranks compared with other states and the nation as a whole, especially given the state's size? |
We publish the number of people vaccinated as a share of a state's population to take a state's size out of the equation. So while California has received and administered more vaccines than any other state, the share of its population that has gotten a vaccine falls behind 17 other states. |
What should Californians take away from the percentage of doses used? |
This measures how much of the delivered vaccine has actually gone into arms. There are many reasons for this number to be less than 100 percent, including delays in reporting by providers and the over-allocation of doses to sites with lower demand for vaccines. Many of these "unused" shots may also be spoken for in some locations, as booked appointments for vaccinations are not a part of the "doses used" figure. The stockpiling of vaccine for mass vaccination clinics can also lower the percentage of doses used. |
What are you tracking most closely going forward? Are there any numbers you hope to be able to track once states (presumably) start releasing more detailed data? |
We hope to see more county-level figures in the coming weeks so we can look at vaccination rates in finer detail. How does the rollout vary in different parts of California? We are also closely watching what states share about the race and ethnicity of those who have gotten a shot, as this information is often not collected when someone gets a vaccine. |
Are there any trends nationwide that particularly worry you or give you hope? |
President Biden recently said he was aiming for the country to administer 1.5 million vaccine doses a day, and we are very close to reaching that goal. We will be watching to see if the United States can maintain or even surpass this pace in the coming days and weeks. |
Here's what else to know today |
 | | The triage tent for people with Covid-19 symptoms outside the emergency department at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital in Los Angeles on Jan. 14.Isadora Kosofsky for The New York Times |
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- During the worst of the winter surge, nearly a quarter of Covid-19 inpatients were dying at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital — by size the hardest-hit hospital in the hardest-hit county in the state, which is now leading the nation in cases. That's despite advances in understanding of the disease. [The New York Times]
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Here's another look at how the virus has been pummeling communities in Los Angeles County unequally. [The New York Times] |
- California and other states have put in place eviction moratoriums and other measures meant to protect vulnerable renters. But that doesn't get rid of back rent, and aid could be missing some of the people who need it most. [The New York Times]
- San Francisco officials have sought to reassure residents rattled by violent street attacks on two older men, which left both of them dead. One, which resulted in the death of Vicha Ratanapakdee, is spurring particular concern from members of the Asian-American and Pacific Islander community still shaken from a spate of incidents in 2019 and 2020. [The San Francisco Chronicle]
- "I lose sleep over this." Punjabi farmers living in the Central Valley — like in Yuba City, nicknamed "Mini Punjab" — are rallying behind farmers protesting in India. [The Guardian]
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- A yearslong fight between Hollywood agents and TV writers over practices that the writers said created an unfair financial conflict of interest for the agents has ended. [The New York Times]
- Hunter Biden and his family have reportedly moved into a three-story, canal-front home in Venice. Earlier this month, Secret Service cars parked in the famously picturesque (and famously expensive) neighborhood created "quite a buzz." [Venice Current]
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 | | Bright pickled shallots and crisp scallions balance the richness of suon kho, northern Vietnamese pork ribs that are grilled then braised in a savory caramel sauce.Johnny Miller for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Rebecca Jurkevich. Prop Stylist: Paige Hicks. |
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Fortunately, even if communities can't gather at festivals and parades, there is always food. |
"Though I don't live in Vietnam or in a Little Saigon enclave, the Lunar New Year remains strong in my DNA," she wrote. "It's a state of mind more than a milieu." |
If you're not up for cooking a feast for a smaller group, you can support your favorite local restaurants by ordering takeout. (The San Francisco Chronicle has this helpful list of Lunar New Year specials.) |
Jill Cowan grew up in Orange County, graduated from U.C. Berkeley and has reported all over the state, including the Bay Area, Bakersfield and Los Angeles — but she always wants to see more. Follow along here or on Twitter. |
California Today is edited by Julie Bloom, who grew up in Los Angeles and graduated from U.C. Berkeley. |
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