Did you guys hear the good news?
Blue Shield of California, a health insurance company, is going to handle COVID-19 vaccine distributions in the state moving forward. What about Kaiser Permanente or Anthem Blue Cross customers? Will they get access to the vaccines?
Well, I’m covered by Blue Shield, so that’s good news for me. All you Kaiser and Anthem customers are suckers!
Instead of centralizing vaccine distribution through our crappy public health system, which governments in developed countries across the world have managed to figure out, the great state of California is centralizing the distribution of a vital vaccine through a for-profit insurance company.
I’m not going to dwell on it because I spent far too many words on crappy health care last week, but sheesh! We can’t figure this out in what some would call the most progressive state in the United States? We’re screwed.
Meanwhile, Santa Barbara County (and others across the nation) were assured adequate doses of the COVID-19 vaccine would be on hand.
U.S. Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Santa Barbara) put it rather nicely when he said the Trump administration “made some statements” about vaccine availability that weren’t accurate. Oh, you mean his administration lied to the American people? Gasp!
So, rather than saving 50 percent of the initial vaccine doses it received to give out second shots to people, the county distributed more than half to try and get more people inoculated. Oops.
“The second doses are now becoming due for a larger and larger number of persons, and with a relatively low supply of vaccine, at some point more vaccine is needed to complete the series, and also to begin new vaccinations for new people,” county Public Health Director Dr. Van Do-Reynoso said during a recent vaccine town hall.
So where does that leave us? Well. Those front-line health care workers who were first in line for vaccinations might have to wait an extra three to four weeks for the vaccine surge before they can get full immunity (99 percent) to COVID-19. Man. We’re, like, on top of things!
Look at our Employment Development Department (EDD), which is in charge of granting unemployment benefits to all of the people who lost their jobs due to the pandemic. The department managed to become the victim of fraudulent claims—at least $10.4 billion worth, with more being investigated—while leaving thousands of Californians waiting months to receive approval of much-needed benefits. On top of it!
The Santa Barbara County District Attorney’s Office is investigating at least 150 inmates in the local jail system who received roughly $1.2 million in benefits. And the office is waiting on paperwork from—you guessed it—the EDD! Another sorely underfunded government agency that was unprepared to serve everyone in the state.
Assemblymember Jordan Cunningham (R-San Luis Obispo), who was all too happy to criticize Gov. Gavin Newsom for abusing his executive privileges when it comes to COVID-19 public health orders, is champing at the bit for the governor to use that same executive power to implement reforms at the EDD.
The Canary also likes to have cake and eat it too. Send comments to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in Feb 4-11, 2021.