Ventura County Canceling Vaccine Appointments For LA County Residents, Apparently Including 90265
Written by 991KBU on March 19, 2021
More than 150 residents of Los Angeles County have been turned away from vaccination appointments recently in Ventura County … right next door to Malibu.
This … despite being sent to vaccination centers or pharmacies by the state appointment system.
Ventura County is enforcing an order that only Ventura County residents can get vaccinated.
But … the state appointment system is sending residents of Malibu to the nearest pharmacy or mass vaccination center to their hosues.
In many cases … for Malibu residents … that is over the hill … in Ventura County.
The state system … myturn,ca.gov ... does not ask for county of residence when it makes the appointments.
And Malibu is in a weird geographic place … western Malibu 90265 is actually in Ventura County.
And many Malibu residents do most of their shopping and commerce … or see their personal physicians … in Ventura County.
On one day alone last week … 167 people from outside Ventura County showed up at a mass vaccination site in Thousand Oaks … 18 miles from Malibu.
They were turned away.
Ventura County’s policy … only vaccinate people who show proof they live or work in Ventura County.
Some people from L A County drove 60 miles to get their appointed vaccinations … and reportedly broke down in tears when told they would be rejected.
The Ventura County vaccination director calls people who cross county lines “vaccine tourists.”
And he makes the point that the supplies of vaccine shipped to counties is based on the number of people eligible for shots.
State officials told the Ventura County Star they have asked for county residency to be added to the state appointment system.
But it is not clear if those allocations are based on surrounding population … or on county lines.
Ventura County is putting up large signs … residents only … at the mass vaccination sites.
And they are telling pharmacies that dispense the vaccine to enforce Ventura County residency guidelines.
All this potentially deprives Malibu … an area with only one pharmacy … deprived of the same access to vaccine that others have … because of the way county lines were drawn.
But the state has not said if population data and vaccine distributiion is based on county lines … or other demographic information.
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No additional Covid 19 cases were diagnosed in Malibu in the 24 hours ending yesterday.
nearly 1 million Californians have gotten a shot in the past two days.
The L A Times has compiled data that shows the last four days have seen the four highest single-day totals of vaccines administered to date.
Last Tuesday … more than 464 thousand people in the state got the vaccine.
23 percent of California residents have been vaccinated …. that’s 13.4 million of us.
And in Malibu … we are tracking that at 23.7 percent.
Last week, California received 1.7 million doses, according to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
That allotment grew slightly to 1.75 million this week and was expected to be 1.8 million next week.
The delay … not enough vaccine … and a supply chain that still moves in fits and stops.
