San Diego County law enforcement officers get COVID-19 vaccine at Scripps hospital

Chris Van Gorder, CEO of Scripps Health, administers a dose of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine.

Health system surprised to learn many officers have already received shots

March 1, 2021 12:32 PM PT

After months waiting their turns, law enforcement officers and teachers are now front and center in San Diego County’s coronavirus vaccination effort.

About 3,000 local teachers were vaccinated over the weekend at locations operated by UC San Diego Health and Sharp HealthCare, according to the California Schools Voluntary Benefits Association, while local police officers and deputy sheriffs began rolling through a drive-through vaccination clinic operated by Scripps Health Monday.

They add to what has become a mountain of vaccinations with nearly 930,000 doses already administered, including more than 272,000 who have now received two doses, meaning that 10 percent of the region’s population age 16 and older is now fully vaccinated.

At the moment, all coronavirus trends are moving in the right directions. Vaccination rates are climbing while case rates continue to decline, hitting 269 Sunday, following 262 on Saturday after plateauing generally in the 400-to-500 range for weeks.

Daily numbers generally under 300, if sustained over weeks, would allow San Diego County to move to a less-restrictive tier in the state’s much-maligned reopening system, which is due for a weekly rankings update Tuesday.

As vaccination touches a growing percentage of the local population, decreases in new case rates become more sustainable. The pace of vaccination, however, is entirely decided by how many new doses are making it into the region from manufacturers.

The county health department said Monday that it expects about 46,000 doses of vaccine to arrive early in the week, about evenly split between those from manufacturers Moderna and Pfizer. An additional 47,000 are on order for later in the week, though delivery is never perfectly predictable.

A county official said in an email that the number of incoming Moderna doses remains anemic and, for the time being, those that do arrive will be used to give second shots to people who have already received their first shots.

Teachers and law enforcement officers, though, are not likely to find themselves getting turned down when they turn up their sleeves. The county will reserve 20 percent of incoming inventory for teachers and 10 percent for law enforcement.

The drive-through clinic, held on the top floor of Scripps Memorial Hospital La Jolla’s parking garage Monday, was staffed by about 20 employees and volunteers who guided guests through check-in, vaccination and a 15-minute waiting period to monitor them for side effects.

About 200 officers, deputies and others working in the broader category of emergency services were slated to get their shots, just days after they became eligible on Saturday.

“I work in a jail. We’re around COVID-positive people every day,” said Craig Webster, a detentions deputy at the Vista jail and one of those vaccinated at the clinic. “It’s been a long time coming.”

Scripps Health CEO Chris Van Gorder echoed that sentiment. The moment held special significance for the health system executive, as he’s the county’s reserve assistant sheriff and a former police officer.

“We’ve been lobbying the county and others for law enforcement for a long time because, as first responders, they’re out on the scene the same as the fire department is,” he said. “It’s personal for me as well. I love to see these deputies and these police officers getting vaccinated now.”

Linda Woods, a pharmacist who had recently retired after a 40-year career, was one of those who helped put shots in arms, calling the vaccine “the glimmer of hope that people need.”

Scripps plans to inoculate more law enforcement officers on Monday and Tuesday at its Del Mar Fairgrounds vaccine superstation. But it’s unclear how much demand there’ll be for appointments. After considerable controversy around law enforcement officers not becoming eligible for vaccine until this weekend, Van Gorder said he was surprised to learn that most officers at police departments for Chula Vista, Coronado, Carlsbad, Escondido, El Cajon and Oceanside had already gotten their shots, as well as the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office.

“It appears most of the departments are already vaccinated — a little bit ahead of their tier,” he said.

Van Gorder added that, in some cases, officers have been vaccinated with doses that would otherwise have gone to waste, but said it’s highly unlikely there would be enough spare doses to vaccinate whole departments.

It was not clear Monday exactly how many doses had already been administered to law enforcement officers. County officials did not provide a clear accounting of the numbers, directing inquiries to local law enforcement agencies which also did not have immediate answers Monday afternoon.

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are about 8,000 patrol officers and detectives in the San Diego metropolitan region. The San Diego Office of Education estimates there are about 80,000 local school employees eligible to be vaccinated.

What you need to know about San Diego's COVID-19 vaccine rollout

UPDATED May 5, 2021 | 9:16 AM

Am I eligible for the vaccine?

Anyone 16 and up is eligible.

Where can I get my shot?

The region has mass vaccination sites in La Mesa, La Jolla, Chula Vista, San Marcos and Del Mar. There are also many smaller sites throughout San Diego County, some run by Sharp HealthCare and Rady Children’s Hospital. The county’s COVID-19 vaccine page lists the various locations and ways to sign up; we have a similar resource on the U-T’s website. Local pharmacies are an option, too. CVS is now offering walk-in (appointment-free) vaccination as well as same-day appointments. If you have a Facebook account, you may want to join the San Diego Vaccine Hunters group, where more than 6,000 people ask and answer questions about how to book an appointment.

If you want to make an appointment at one of the smaller county-run sites, you can do so through an online system called MyTurn (myturn.ca.gov). Several of these sites are now also accepting walk-ins.

County officials have said that seniors who don’t have a computer can call 2-1-1 for help scheduling vaccination appointments. There’s also a group called San Diego Vaccine Angels, which is helping seniors and those who aren’t tech savvy book appointments.

Health care providers such as UC San Diego Health, the San Diego VA, Sharp and Scripps have been reaching out to older patients within their systems to schedule appointments, but that is happening slowly and unevenly between providers depending on how much vaccine they have.

K-12 teachers and staff won’t have to schedule their own vaccine appointments, as that will be handled through a program run by the San Diego County Office of Education and California Schools Voluntary Employees Benefits Association (VEBA), an organization that offers health care benefits to school employees. Scripps Health will work with law enforcement agencies to ensure that officer are immunized and San Diego firefighters will go out into the fields to vaccinate farm workers.

Can I pick which vaccine I get?

Sort of. Some of the the county’s vaccine locations only offer the Moderna vaccine. Others offer the Pfizer vaccine, such as the Del Mar Fairgrounds superstation.

But both of those vaccines use the same approach to spark immunity against the coronavirus and are about 95 percent effective at preventing you from getting sick with COVID-19.

Speaking of which, you’ll need to come back for a booster shot three or four weeks later for Pfizer’s and Moderna’s vaccines, respectively. That second dose maximizes immunity against the virus. When you get your first shot, you’ll receive a vaccination record card reminding you to return for that next appointment.

The most recently authorized vaccine, made by Johnson & Johnson, only requires one shot.

How much does the shot cost?

The shot is free — though, of course, the U.S. government used taxpayer dollars to purchase the doses. Vaccine providers can bill your insurance an administration fee, but there’s no copay. And if you don’t have insurance, you’ll still get the vaccine at no cost.

What can I do after getting vaccinated?

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention say it’s OK to get together with small numbers of other vaccinated people indoors — with or without a mask — once you’ve been fully vaccinated (e.g. a dinner party). If you received the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, that would be two weeks after your second dose. If you received the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, that would be two weeks after your shot.

The CDC says it’s also OK for fully vaccinated people to gather with unvaccinated people who live together, as long as those people are at low risk of developing severe COVID-19. And the agency has said that fully vaccinated people can travel within the U.S. without getting a coronavirus test before or after their trip or needing to quarantine after their travels. Those who travel internationally won’t need a negative coronavirus test unless it’s required by the nation they’re traveling to, but will still need a negative test result before boarding a flight back to the U.S. and must get another test within three to five days of returning from their trip.

Caution is still key. The CDC says to avoid medium- or large-sized gatherings regardless of vaccination status, and to wear a mask during large outdoor gatherings. Part of the issue is that you don’t have to have COVID-19 symptoms to spread the coronavirus, and many people still haven’t been vaccinated yet. Researchers say that throwing caution to the wind could further fuel the spread of the virus and even lead to new strains that vaccines don’t work against — undermining the whole immunization campaign.