California’s COVID state of emergency to end, counties fear lagging booster rates

On the day Santa Clara County’s public health director pleaded for people to get the latest COVID booster, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that on Feb. 28 he will end the state of emergency that’s been in place since the pandemic began nearly three years ago.

The governor’s announcement signals the worst of the COVID scourge that has killed more than 95,000 people in California and 1 million in the U.S. is over. “The State of Emergency was an effective and necessary tool that we utilized to protect our state,” Newsom said, “and we wouldn’t have gotten to this point without it.”

But it also may make it harder for public health officers to convince people to stay vigilant and get the latest booster before a possible winter surge.

Hours before Newsom’s announcement, Santa Clara County Public Health Director Sara Cody stood at the county fairgrounds where a cavernous hall set up to inject the omicron-specific boosters was nearly empty and implored people to get the jabs before the holidays.

“We encourage you to take your child, take your parents, take a family member, make appointments and come get boosted,” Cody said. “Get boosted, get protected so that you can enjoy the upcoming fall and winter holidays.”

When the COVID vaccine was first released nearly two years ago, Bay Area residents were among the most enthusiastic takers. But now, with the threat of a winter surge looming, the numbers of those lining up for the shots has plummeted.

In Santa Clara County alone, only 12% of eligible people have received the updated booster since it was first offered in early September to fight the highly transmissible omicron variants that have managed to infect some people who have had their shots. In comparison, 69% of eligible people got the first booster.

On Monday, the county also received shipments of the booster that is now available to children between the ages of 5 and 11 — another opportunity county officials hope will send people to free vaccination clinics.

Like other health officials, Cody is combating a general apathy toward the virus, especially since official COVID case counts have dropped to near-record lows and deaths have settled in recent weeks at around 30 per day in the state.

“What we’ve seen so far is a very slow and sluggish uptake of these boosters,” Cody said. “My sense is that the greatest barrier to getting boosted is fatigue — that people are fatigued from managing the pandemic.”

Not only does the booster reduce the risk of hospitalization and death for the elderly especially, she said, but reduces the risk of long COVID by as much as 85 percent.

The bivalent booster is meant to repel the dominant BA4 and BA5 omicron variants, and while other new variants continue to emerge, the new formula will “broaden and deepen our immunity in general,” Cody said.

She countered recent concerns, expressed by the Florida surgeon general, about possible heart problems among young men who take the booster.

“The vaccine does increase the risk a bit,” she said, “but here’s the really important thing — getting COVID actually increases your risk of myocarditis for young men much more than the vaccine.”

The shots are free. People can make appointments at vax.sccgov.org.

Although only 12% of eligible residents of Santa Clara County are boosted, it’s still about double the percentage of the rest of the country as a whole so far.

When the entire population is factored in — not just those eligible now — about 8 percent of Santa Clara County’s residents have received the latest shot. Marin County has the highest percentage, with nearly 11% of its residents receiving the bivalent booster, followed by San Francisco at 10.6%, San Mateo at 9% and Alameda and Contra Costa at just over 8%, according to the California Department of Public Health.

The Bay Area is doing much better than the state — only 5.3% of residents have gotten the new jabs so far. And the counties that have been most reluctant to embrace COVID restrictions, including in the Central Valley and the far northern reaches of the state, lag far behind, the data show.

Later Monday, Newsom celebrated the success of the state’s programs to combat COVID — including lockdowns, mask mandates and subsidies — which he says saved tens of thousands of lives and kept businesses afloat.

“With the operational preparedness that we’ve built up and the measures that we’ll continue to employ moving forward,” Newsom said, “California is ready to phase out this tool.”

Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s Secretary of the California Health & Human Services Agency, said that “while the threat of this virus is still real, our preparedness and collective work have helped turn this once crisis emergency into a manageable situation.”