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Yesterday, in his #NewsomatNoon presser, the governor almost drove by a pretty big piece of news - the state's changing #COVID19 vaccine prioritization - as he was underexplaining another piece of news - how we came to get out of the regional #stayathome orders. A 
about both...
about both...
As news leaked through restaurant lobbyists that the orders were lifting, politicians were caught by surprise. So were most people watching the metrics that the state established for re-opening: current and projected ICU availability. https://twitter.com/Mollydacious/status/1353786198158766080
That's because the method used to project ICU availability has been opaque. Answering the first q at yesterday's briefing. HHS Secretary Dr. Mark Ghaly named factors used in projections. But he didn't elaborate on how they are used. https://twitter.com/Mollydacious/status/1353804064086134785
CDPH didn't really answer when I asked how 4-week projections were calculated. They pointed me to these data, but didn't say how they are combined. They said that regions currently <15% might be projected above, & vice versa, & that exit from an order is based on projections.
I also asked who was responsible for creating the projections and whether it was CDPH. Crickets there, too. For what it's worth here are the current projections: https://twitter.com/CAPublicHealth/status/1353802328651010049
When Newsom said that the state would shift vaccine prioritization, that slipped past me at first. I went back and listened because vaccine questions are nagging and legion. As he sometimes does, the governor was teasing to news that he wasn't explaining. https://twitter.com/Mollydacious/status/1353842703222542337
News that job status won't matter for vaccine prioritization caught SEIU by surprise. They estimate the shift will cause about 150,000 to lose their place in line. Workers who "visit homes to save abused and neglected children, help house the homeless, staff our state prisons..."
A statement from SEIU's Bob Schoonover, in part: “California labeled these workers essential when the state wanted their service through the #pandemic; if they are removed from the priority list for #vaccination, the state is now saying they are expendable." #COVID19
I confirmed with CDPH that California is essentially eliminating 1b tier 2 and phase 1c entirely in favor of an age-based #COVID19 vax prioritization plan. It now feels like hints of it were coming last week, when Dr. Erica Pan said it would take 20 to 22 weeks to vax 65+.
"To reduce public confusion, make it easier on providers (who soon won’t have to consider occupation) and speed vaccine administration, you are correct re: Phase 1b Tier 2 and subsequent phases," wrote someone from the vaccine task force.
I had wondered aloud here about how a 65+ prioritization plan forward equity. @KFF has a data analysis about how early #COVID19 vax rollout "raises warning flags" on that...for states tracking such data. California does not: https://www.kff.org/policy-watch/early-state-vaccination-data-raise-warning-flags-racial-equity/
The task force spox's response insists that California's vac priorities will address equity by allocating vax to federally qualified health centers in hard-hit communities "...to ensure access and give them a better chance at availability while our supply remains limited."
Anyway, those of us following this aren't idiots. The point is that the state makes tiny & large decisions every day about what it thinks we need to know and understand and when. Mark Ghaly likely will have to clean this all up in his briefing today. Hope so. I'm already wrecked.
Feels important to highlight this: as you can see earlier in this chain, the state task force spox's response doesn't reference 1c specifically, but does say I'm correct when I ask whether it's being done away with.
