![]() ![]() To help fill the gap, some local hospitals are hosting spontaneous ‘pop up’ clinics, using their own vaccine supplies. “We want to make sure that they’re prioritized not just in writing, but on the ground – out in the field, in the packing houses,” she said. That’s been incredibly limiting,” said Diana Tellefson Torres of the United Farm Workers Foundation, which is working to help design mobile vaccination clinics where farm workers live and work. “At the local level, many counties have not yet triggered the ‘farm worker’ category for prioritization. Only a few counties, such as Riverside and Fresno, have begun official programs to protect food and agriculture workers. But the state has received fewer than 7 million doses, according to data from the CDPH. ![]() Erica Pan, state epidemiologist with the California Department of Public Health. “It depends on supply.”Īn estimated 23 million doses are required to fully protect all 11.5 million people in Phase 1A and 1B categories, said Dr. “No date certain right now,” said Monterey County’s Karen Smith. “We’re still functioning under the belief that we have to finish the 65 and older group before we move on to others.”Ĭounties add that they now don’t have enough vaccines to widen distribution. Jeff Smith, Santa Clara County executive. “Counties have the option to vaccinate individuals in the food and ag industry, on those essential frontlines, who are keeping food in stores and on tables,” he said at a recent press briefing.īut counties say they’ve been told to vaccinate only those individuals who are older than 65, said Dr. Mark Ghaly, California Health and Human Services Secretary, deciding whom to vaccinate in this current distribution system, Phase 1B Tier 1, is up to each county. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)īut they’re caught in a war of mixed messages between state and county governments.Īccording to Dr. The company hopes to use empty mushroom growing rooms as COVID-19 vaccination sites for employees as well as field workers, packers, and processors from the region’s other farms. WATSONVILLE, CA – FEBRUARY 4: Monterey Mushrooms employees work in a packing facility on Thursday, Feb. A UC San Francisco study found that COVID-19 deaths among California Latinos were 36% higher than among the average state population - with a 59% increase among Latinos who were food/agriculture workers. Working in close quarters and crowded housing, often carpooling to work, these workers are at elevated risk, according to recent research. Nowhere are there doses for farmworkers.” “Then it goes to health care providers and people over age 65. ![]() Then it goes to the big boys: Kaiser, Stanford, Sutter, Dignity,” and other health systems, said Newman. “The feds take their cut, for military and government officials. ![]() So the low-income, largely Latino workforce is waiting. On Wednesday, a coalition of Bay Area health officers urged all health systems to prioritize vaccines for people 65 and older, a group at greatest risk of dying, and move essential workers such as farm workers further down the list. With hospitals dangerously full, California has recommended that counties broaden their top priority groups to include older adults, hoping to lessen the burden and reduce deaths. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)įrustrated, food and agricultural businesses - whose 3.4 million high-risk “essential workers” thought they were near the front of the line to receive a vaccine, right after medical workers and people in nursing homes - now don’t know when it’ll be their turn. Kazemi hopes to use empty mushroom growing rooms as COVID-19 vaccination sites for his employees as well as field workers, packers, and processors from the region’s other farms. “This is a public health crisis.” WATSONVILLE, CA – FEBRUARY 4: Monterey Mushrooms owner Shah Kazemi is photographed in an empty building used to grow mushrooms on Thursday, Feb. “We’re good to go,” said Shah Kazemi, owner of the company that aims to protect its own 1,200 workers as well as field workers, packers and processors from the region’s other farms. Monterey Mushrooms, the nation’s largest mushroom farm, is ready to open its on-site vaccination clinic. The floors are swept clean, soon to hold chairs and tables. Gone are the tall shelves that once held trays of thousands of tiny fungi. The dark rooms no longer smell like rich compost. ![]()
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