SLO County wants to vaccinate 100% of residents against COVID. How is the rate in your area?
Last month, Forrest Powell got his second COVID-19 vaccine dose in the Fremont Theater lobby.
For Powell — a 19-year-old Cal Poly student about to start his second year at school — the Pfizer shot he got at the San Luis Obispo County Public Health pop-up clinic ended his “long decision process” over getting the vaccine.
Powell initially didn’t see a reason to get the COVID-19 vaccine. Like many young people his age, Powell didn’t feel like he or anyone in his family was at particularly high risk for bad outcomes from the virus.
But then Powell heard the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was preparing to fully approve the Pfizer vaccine, putting his mind at ease.
“The thing that kind of set me over the edge was I read a couple of articles saying that Pfizer was going to be FDA-approved,” Powell said. “As soon as I read that, I went and got it. And then the next day, it was FDA-approved.”
He also wanted his whole family to be able to gather again, especially his grandparents, who were taking extra precautions to avoid getting sick.
“I wanted to get it because of my grandparents, my family, I guess,” Powell said. “It’s nice to be able to all come together, because it’s something that, like, some of us will hold out and not come together, just because they’re afraid of COVID. And then some will. So we’ll see some part of the family but not the whole thing, and it’s just not the same.”
SLO County vaccine rates still trail those statewide
County Public Health officials would like to see more residents come to Powell’s conclusion about the COVID-19 vaccine.
Countywide, most people ages 12 and older are fully vaccinated — 65% as of Oct. 11, Public Health data shows. But the area still lags behind California’s full vaccination rate, which stands at about 72% as of Oct. 13., according to the state Department of Public Health.
“Currently, we are increasing our fully vaccinated percentage by about 1% or less each week,” Michelle Shoresman, a Public Health spokeswoman, told The Tribune in an email. “Hopefully, this will increase at a faster rate once those under the age of 12 can be vaccinated. However, we are below the state average and moving more slowly than we need to if we want to significantly change this situation and end the pandemic. We would like to be closer to 80% by now.”
Even though vaccines have been widely available for about six months, 28% of residents still haven’t gotten even one COVID-19 shot. In Powell’s 18- to 49-year-old age group, the number of unvaccinated people is closer to 37%.
That means just 56% of 18- to 49-year-olds are fully vaccinated. The same is true for about 53% of 12- to 17-year-olds, although state data shows COVID-19 vaccine demand has not quite flattened for that age group.
The two older age groups have made significantly better progress. Just more than 80% of residents 65 and older are fully vaccinated, as are about 72% of 50- to 64-year-olds.
There also continues to be steep vaccine disparities between eligible residents of different races and ethnicities.
About 60% of Asian residents are fully vaccinated, as are 57% of white residents. However, just 48% of Latino residents are fully vaccinated, and the same is true of only about 28% of Black residents.
Public Health using weekend shot appointments, pop-up clinics to push vaccine
Some unvaccinated residents strongly oppose the COVID-19 shot and may never get it. However, Powell and others at the Fremont Public Health clinic simply decided to get vaccinated late in the game for a variety of reasons.
“It’s more complicated than a lot of people would make it out to be,” Powell said.
Aaron Hernandez, 31, of Avila Beach was at the clinic getting his first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. He said he didn’t previously think he was at risk of getting seriously ill from COVID-19.
“For me, I didn’t think I was in that group that was really harshly affected,” Hernandez said.
But he ended up getting COVID-19 just two to three weeks before the clinic, which drained his energy and took him out of work for a week and a half.
“At this point, I thought it was a little more urgent for me to get the vaccine,” Hernandez said.
Logan Marks of Atascadero was getting the one-dose Johnson & Johnson shot because he was planning to move to Las Vegas for restaurant work and he’d heard there was a vaccine requirement.
Marks said there wasn’t anything in particular that made him not want to get the vaccine. It just took the requirement to make him go get his shot.
County Public Health officials are doing everything they can to make it easy for people like Powell, Hernandez and Marks to get their vaccines.
The Fremont pop-up clinic was part of a “Shots for Shows” incentive program that gave free concert tickets to those who got their vaccines at the theater and two other county venues.
Public Health has also begun offering Saturday hours at its permanent clinics in Paso Robles, San Luis Obispo and Grover Beach, so tha people who have busy work weeks can get their shots over the weekend, Shoresman said.
In addition, the county is still holding mobile clinics in areas like Shandon and San Simeon, communities “that are more rural or where higher numbers of people of color and other disadvantaged groups live,” Shoresman said.
Public Health also wants to help get more private providers, especially pediatricians, to offer COVID-19 vaccines to patients.
Additionally, the county is planning school-based clinics to serve students. The FDA is getting ready to approve an emergency use authorization that would make children ages 5 to 11 eligible for Pfizer vaccines, and Public Health is already preparing to administer them.
North County zip codes continue to drag down SLO County’s vaccination rates
The county wants to get as close to 100% of people vaccinated as possible “to really wipe out COVID-19 and best prevent future variants from developing,” Shoresman said. However, SLO County as a whole is still far from that goal.
Some zip code areas have higher vaccine rates that are bolstering the county’s overall percentage. But others have lower rates that are dragging the totals down.
“We are looking at practical goals in the medium term and continuing to evaluate those as we learn more about the percentage vaccination needed to reach herd immunity through vaccination in a world where the Delta variant has taken hold,” Shoresman said.
“When vaccines first became available, the minimum percentage of people that public health organizations would generally aim for was around 80%,” she added. “Now, in the context of Delta, it is looking like that number needs to be higher — maybe even closer to 90%.”
A large majority of residents in zip codes on the North Coast, in the South County and in San Luis Obispo are fully vaccinated as of Oct. 12., according to California Department of Public Health data.
In San Luis Obispo’s 93401 zip code, about 76% of residents are fully vaccinated, as are about 73% of residents in Cambria’s 93428 zip code and about 69% of Morro Bay’s 93442 zip code.
Avila Beach continues to have the county’s best COVID-19 shot rate, with 100% of residents fully vaccinated.
Oceano and Grover Beach continue to lag behind other South County zip codes, as both communities have yet to see more than 60% of residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19.
The North County continues to have the worst vaccination rates, especially rural areas like Shandon and Creston. Just more than 49% of residents in both those zip codes are fully vaccinated.
Templeton’s 93465 zip code, where about 67% of residents are fully vaccinated, has the highest rate in the North County.
About 53% of residents in San Miguel’s 93451 zip code and Santa Margarita-Pozo’s 93453 zip code are fully vaccinated. Paso Robles’ 93446 zip code area has a full vaccine rate of nearly 58%, and Atascadero’s 93422 area is closer to 56%.
