COVID PM: En route back to red, Biden’s ambitious vaccine plans
Hey, everyone, it’s been a newsy Tuesday — and just the kind we like around here. Good newsy, unless you’re trying to get a vaccine through Sutter Health.
➤ We’re primed for red tier re-entry.
➤ We wondered why the target date of March 16 moved up by six days, so we sought out some answers on that.
➤ President Joe Biden decided that the vaccine timetable wasn’t ambitious enough and decided to move it up by a few months.
The one bit of bad news we’re learning about (which flies counter to the Biden news above): Inventory is forcing Sutter/PAMF to delay and/or cancel vaccination appointments.
More on all of that below...
Red tier finally back in sight
TIER-Y EYED: Santa Cruz County now meets the COVID-19 metrics for the “red tier” of the state’s Blueprint for a Safer Economy, setting the stage for a transition out of the purple tier next week. If the county maintains or improves these metrics on March 9, it will move to the less restrictive tier on Wednesday, March 10, county officials said. Mallory Pickett explores that further here.
COVID TODAY: Over the past several days, various government officials had been saying there would be a state-mandated two-week waiting period after Santa Cruz County’s COVID-19 metrics dropped low enough to move the county into red. Here’s why it will only be a week instead.
Biden ups the vaccination ante
VACCINE WATCH: President Biden said Tuesday that the United States would have enough COVID-19 vaccines to inoculate every American adult by the end of May, two months earlier than previously expected. The increased supply would help schools reopen faster, he said, by allowing states to prioritize inoculating teachers and other staff. More on that here.
BUT SUTTER: Supply issues have forced Sutter/PAMF to cancel second-dose appointments through March 9. First dose appointments throughout the Bay Area on pause. Read more about that situation here.
Quick Take
Since 2012, the Watsonville Film Festival (WFF) has made it a point to celebrate and uplift women behind, and in front...
More from here & elsewhere
➤ Amazon, Facebook and Google N95 mask restrictions at odds with expert advice (SF Gate)
➤ Texas And Mississippi To Lift COVID-19 Mask Mandates And Business Capacity Limits (NPR)
➤ De Blasio joins local leaders in questioning Cuomo’s pandemic response amid scandal (Politico)
➤ Donald Trump, Melania Trump secretly received COVID-19 vaccine in January (USA Today)
➤ ‘Strangely emotional’: Newly vaccinated Bay Area restaurant workers talk mixed feelings (SF Gate)
➤ What brains could teach scientists about the lasting effects of Covid-19 (NBC News)
Talk to me
➤ Are you a small business owner now scrambling to adjust your purple-to-red plan accordingly yet again? Or perhaps a youth/high school coach or a teacher or a frontline worker in a store or hospital? We all have endured the ever-moving pandemic goal posts, but certainly some of us more than others. If you’ve got perspective to lend — or venting to do — hit “reply” to this email and lay it on me.
➤ Are you a Sutter patient who has been affected by the delays and/or cancellations of first doses? Tell me about it by doing the same.
➤ Anything else we should know about and be looking into? Again, hit reply and let me know.
See you tomorrow!
Mark Conley
Deputy Managing Editor